Only love can hurt like this
by Safora Heineken
Summary: In this story Lena and Stef are separated. They wouldn't be them if they didn't still love Each other... A story filled with drama, smut and romance. Lena/Stef Monte/Lena
1. Changes

**HI HUYS! So, in this story… well, just read it, it's hard to explain it without giving too much of it away. Also, I wanted to point out that English Is not my first language, so If you find any typo's or grammatical errors. Please point them out so I can fix them and improve my stories in the future** **I hope you enjoy reading this.**

Lena was brushing her thick, curly hair in front of her bathroom mirror. She enjoyed the he raspy sound of the brush making its wat through her brown locks while it separated the knots in them. She looked at herself in the mirror. She stared into her own eyes the refection and took a deep breath. Over the course of the last year so much had happened, so much had changed and with that she saw herself change every too. Things were going better and she felt like she was finally starting to get used to this new routine in her life. A set of pale arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her out of her thoughts and back into the present.

The woman behind her took the brush from her hand and gently placed it down on the bathroom sink. "You keep brushing your hair like that and you're going to be bald one day, babe." She said before landing a small kiss on Lena's check.

Lena turned around, wrapped her arms around her lover and connected their foreheads. "But, will you still love me if I go bald?" she whispered as their eyes connect.

"I will love you no matter what happens." On of her hands unwrapped from Lena's waist and traveled up her back to her hair, followed by a gentle tug on it. "But, please be a little gentler when brushing your hair. I still want something to hold on to when I take you from behind." The last sentence came out in a seductive purr.

Lena leaned forward and placed a kiss on the shorter woman's nose. A smile appeared on both of their faces before their lips brushed together. Lena's breathing hitched when she felt the soft lips tracing her neck and bare shoulder. She couldn't hold in the small giggle that escaped her mouth. She lulled her head back when she felt the lips trace across her throat before their eyes locked again.

"We both need to get to work… We'll finish this later, Baby." The woman said before her gaze left Lena's and she turned back into the bedroom to finish getting dressed for work. Leaving Lena alone with her thought again. Lena put on her favorite blouse. It was brown and orange, bohemian style. She remembered when she bought it, she was spending a little quality time with Marianna, who insisted she'd fit it and then cheered and clapped at her mother when she walked out of the fitting room.

Lena looked at herself in the mirror once more before leaving the bathroom. "Marianna's Dance performance is this afternoon, so I'm just going to take my own car today so I can go there right after work." She said, walking into the kitchen and pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"Alright, babe. You're going to be back before dinner?" She asked, Serving Lena the breakfast she prepared. It was Toast with bacon and scrambled eggs. She sat next to her and started eating her own breakfast.

"Yeah I think so. It ends at 5:30." Lena said before taking a bite if her toast.

The woman suddenly got a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach. She looked up at Lena with a concerned look on her face. "Is… Stef going to be there too?" She murmured.

Lena looked down at her plate again and started picking at her food with the fork. "I think so…" She said, "But it's okay. She's calmed down by now, I think."

The woman gave a nervous smile. She knew how aggressive Stef could be, she had felt it firsthand. She had a temper, a rock had fist and her words could make you want to cry yourself to sleep at night. She ofcourse wanted Lena to maintain her relationship with all of her five kids, but Stef would always be there and that scared her. Her toughness wasn't the only thing that scared her, she had to be honest to herself. She knew Stef and Lena had a long and sensitive history together, she didn't want Stef around her girlfriend… for the sake of their relationship, she didn't want their history to ruin anything while she was making her own history with Lena. She always noticed a certain fire in Lena's eyes when Stef was the subject matter, a fire that she never saw when she talked about anything else. They were separated now, waiting for the divorce to be finalized, but what if in a moment of romantic Deja-vu Lena would start retching the choices she's made? She knew that would probably never happen, Lena loved her, but… What if?

"How would you know, Babe? You haven't even seen her after the separation. I just want you to be safe." Suddenly the woman wasn't very hungry anymore. She got up and emptied the remaining contents of her plate in the trash bag before setting it in the sink. Trying to hide the fact that she was getting upset or better said... jealous.

"It's been 6 months. Plus, she's probably going to stay very far away from me. Last time at Brandon's recital she was there too and I didn't even see her." Lena reassured her. She knew her girlfriend was being protective. But Stef was no threat to her safety at all.

Lena put her now empty plate on her girlfriend's in the sink before giving her another small peck on the lips "Don't worry, I'm just going to see Marianna's performance. It's really important for me to spend time with the kids and show them I'm still there for them… and to show that even though I'm not with Stef anymore, they are still my priority and I still love them." She said, her hands resting on the counter behind her girlfriend on either side of her body.

"Maybe the kids can stay over this weekend? So, they can get to know me better… and see that I'm not a mean bitch who took their mom away from them. And they can spend some time with you too. They only see you at school and at performances and recitals and games lately." She looked up at Lena with questioning eyes.

Lena smiled at her. She was in love with the idea of having the kids in the same home as her again, even if it was just for a weekend. Since she moved out… or since Stef kicked her out she hadn't spent as much time with the kids as she wanted. In the beginning, she would pick them up and they would spend some time together. Now that only happened one every one or two weeks, Lena was feeling like the kids were disconnecting from her. They of course still texted her and called her and they saw her in school every day. The fact that they didn't like her new partner at all didn't help much either.

"Jude, love." Lena said as she walked towards him in the hallway. She had already asked Marianna, Callie, Jesus and Brandon if they wanted to stay over at her place for the weekend. She saw them all sitting together at the lunch table. They all looked at each other and hesitated at first but then decided that they wouldn't mind staying over if their other mom didn't mind.

"Hey momma!" Jude said enthusiastic. "How are you?" He added.

Lena smiled, he was always so polite. "I'm doing fine, Sweets. How are you?" She hugged him and pinched his cheek. "I'm doing fine, I'm just drowning in this unending sea of homework!" He joked.

His mother laughed. "I was wondering if you want to stay over in the weekend? I asked the other and they all said yes." She saw the doubt and hesitation in Jude's eyes. Her own smile faded off her face. "It's fine if you… if you don't want to we can just do something else fun, just the two of us?" she pleaded.

Jude hated this situation, ever since he and Callie had been adopted and before that he never saw any fights between his moms before one time and a few days later they told the kids that they were getting a divorce. He didn't like his mom's new girlfriend. She was a homewrecking slut who had her eyes on his mom since the beginning. She was the reason all this had happened. Now Stef was always sad even though she tried to hide it from the kids.

"No, It's fine. I's love to stay over!" he said with a now faked enthusiasm in his voice. He would really like to stay over at Lena's house, but he just didn't want her new flame to be there with them.

"Really? Oh, Jude… that means so much to me." Lena's smile was back on her face. She pulled her son back in for another bear hug. "I can't wait to have a house full of kids this weekend! I miss the constant annoying teenager noises you guys make!" she laughed.

The sound of the school bell hit their ears. "Got to go momma. Love you!" Jude said as he closed his locker and waked in the opposite direction. A faint "Love you too, Bug!" was heard from behind him.

The school day went by fast, Lena packed her things and made her way to her car. She pressed the unlock button on when she saw Callie run to her.

"MOM, wait!" She yelled as she threw her grey backpack over her shoulder while running to the car. "Mom already picked the others up but I told them I was riding with you today." She said trying to catch her breath when she finally reached the car. "I had to stay at school to check something out for my project…" She explained "And since you always leave this late I thought I could drive to Marianna's… thing with you." Lena of course didn't object.

The drive was filled Lena and Callie playfully singing along with different songs on the car radio. Searching for the next song Callie stumbled upon 'Love will make me stay' she knew the song, she had heard it a few times before, enough to be able to sing along with it. She looked over at her mom and noticed how she was gripping the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles were becoming white and she was staring straight ahead with no emotion on her face.

"what's wrong?" Callie asked, putting her hand on her mother's shoulder.

Lena looked at her briefly before turning her eyes back to the traffic. "The song…" she started, "Do you remember it?" she asked. This was the song Stef and her had played so many times at their wedding. This was 'their' song. Callie shook her head, she didn't know where she knew it from. She started thinking really hard about when she first heard. Then it came to her. This was the song her moms always used to sing to each other. "Oh, gosh! I'm sorry momma… I forgot." She said as she quickly changed the radio station. Then there was a silence.

"Mom is not doing well…" Callie said suddenly "She's depressed, the doctor gave her pills"

Lena's eyes got wide. Stef was sick, she was depressed. "What? Since when, Callie? Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Lena's heart began to pound in her chest so hard that she was sure it could be seen from the outside.

"I don't know, I saw strange pills in her cabinet…. I was searching for her comb and I google searched what they were for and they are for depression." Callie said in the saddest tome Lena had ever heard. She could her the desperate and concerned in the words that came out of Callie's mouth next, "I want everything to be like it was, momma."

They reached the parking lot of the building, Lena parked her car as close to the entrance as possible. "Callie, I love you… All of you guys with all my heart. You are my children." She turned off the engine of her car.

"So suddenly you stopped loving mom and started loving that BITCH! Callie raised her voice, "Then it's only a matter of time before you stop loving us like that too and start a nice new family with her!" Callie opened the door and stormed out of the car.

Lena followed her. "Cal, please stop, let me talk to you!" she asked. Callie seemed to listen as she stopped walking away from her. Lena turned her around so they were face to face. "Baby girl, I would never stop loving you, nothing in the world could make that happen, not the divorce, not my girlfriend, not even you…" she said, "And the same thing counts for mom, I will always, always, always love her… but sometimes just love is not enough for two people to be together. Mom and I are both not ready to… you know, speak to each other"

Callie's eyes started to tear up. "You hate each other…" Lena cut her off, "No, Love. I will never hate mom. I know the last few days of me being in the house were filled with me and mom fighting and stuff, but I think we need time apart for now to cool down and to get used to not being around each other." She gave Callie a big hug, whipped away her tears and took her hand to walk inside the building with her.

Once they got inside Brandon waved them over to where the rest of the kids were. Lena decided to casually walk by and check if Stef was sitting with them. To her surprise, she wasn't. "Hi babies!" she called as she sat down next to Brandon. Callie had walked a little further and sat down next to Jesus. Lena placed her bag on the chair next to her and tried to relax after the conversation she just had with Callie. They were all a little bit early, the crew was still setting up the stage for the performance. She gave Jude a couple of dollars to go buy some snacks before it stated. She stood up to let Jude pass her and then she bumped into someone. She stood up completely straight to face the person.

" _Lena."_

" _Stef"_

It had been a half year since they last saw each other and they both were in utter shock. Stef opened her moth to say something but decided to close it again. The two just stared at each other before Stef said, "H-how are youj?"

Lena couldn't believe what was happening with her feelings. She should be angry and distant from this woman. But instead she felt like a kid in a candy store, Stef looked so different, but still beautiful as ever. Her hair was hanging in loose strands next to her face. Her piercing blue eyes were framed by her long lashes and they were staring straight into her soul. For a moment, Lena thought about hugging her, but the idea was quickly shoved to the back of her mind. She was dating a lovely woman and she needed to keep her safe distance. Also, she didn't know how Stef felt about her after these six months had passed. After all, Lena was dating someone new and she wasn't going to wake up feelings that were better left asleep, she had hurt both Stef and her girlfriend too much.

"I'm okay. How are you?" She said, not knowing what tone of voice or what body language to use. Everything about her at this point SCREAMED the word awkward.

"I'm good, I'm fine uhm. Can we maybe have a uhm talk later? After the show, I mean…" Stef stuttered. She wanted to be angry at Lena again, she wanted to feel any type of rage. But instead she felt emptiness… an emptiness in her soul. She was thirsty for something and only Lena could give her the formula to quench it. It wasn't a sexual aspect. It was a certain warmth, like a helpless baby that needs a mother. She wanted to feel close to her again even if it was just friendly, but in this moment, she had to be strong and pretend like she didn't feel anything anymore.

Lena nodded her head, "Yeah of course…" she didn't know how to engage any further conversation. She looked behind her and saw all of their children staring at them. They must be surprised that things were so civil between them, the last time the kids saw them together they were yelling at each other and throwing subjects of all their previous fights on the table. Lena and Stef were a little shocked themselves.

Lena removed her bag from the chair that was next to her and put it on the floor before her. She gestured for Stef to sit down next to her. Stef gracefully sat down. She flashed reassuring smile at her kids who were sitting at the other side of Lena. She then looked at Lena and the reassuring smile turned into a friendly smile. A closed mouth smile that said; 'We're on good terms'.

The performance started. Marianna danced her heart out and she of course looked adorable to her moms. She performed dance after dance and her family cheered wildly for her. During the break all of the kids were somewhere in the building, getting a snack, going to the bathroom or just hanging around… anything that could het their butts out of the uncomfortable seats they were in. Lena's cellphone phone buzzed, she was being called. She took her phone from her pocket and looked at the caller ID, it was her girlfriend. Stef saw the caller ID and in her head, she flashed her middle finger at the phone before throwing it to the other side of the room, but she couldn't do that.

She gave Lena another smile, "Lena, you can pick up your phone you know… Do you want a snack?" She asked before getting her wallet out of her bag. Lena shook her head no with a shy look on her face.

Lena had a shy look on her face. She pressed the green icon to pick up the call. "Hey, Monte" she started. Monte was calling to see how Lena wanted her potatoes for dinner when she got home later. The call ended with Lena saying "Bye, I love you too".

Stef had been back from getting her snacks long enough to hear Lena tell Monte that she loved her. It was like a knife stabbing into her heard over and over and over. It was like reliving that moment. That moment when she first found out about Monte and Lena.

 _That day Lena had told Stef that she was coming home late because of meeting with the school counsel. Stef knew something was off about the situation, whenever Lena had meetings like these she would always take her briefcase with her to the school. She decided that she was probably just overreacting ad that it could be a different kind of meeting than usual._

 _She decided to invite Jenna to dinner since all the kids already had made other plans for the evening. Marianna and Callie were going to help set up a party at their friend's house, Jude was going t sleep over at Connor's, Jesus would have dinner at his girlfriend's house and Brandon had an audition. Jenna had told her she needed to talk to her a few days ago, So she decided that they could talk at dinner since nobody else would be home._

" _I made macaroni, or well… I tried" Stef laughed as she set the pots of food on the dinner table where Jenna was already seated. "I think Lena should be home in maybe an hour and a half, these things never take too long." She added. They started to eat their dinner._

" _So, I guess things are done with you and Monte?" Stef asked after Jenna was explaining about this new girl she met at the gym last week. Jenna wasn't the most secretive when it came to het lovers._

" _No…" The expression on Jenna's face changed into a more serious one. "That's actually what I wanted to talk about in the first place…" She murmured._

" _Oh, what's with it? Usually you get over thing like this really easy and I thought…." Stef didn't get to finish her sentence before Jenna cut her off. "Monte dumped me because she said she and Lena are in love."_

 _Stef's eyes grew wide with confusion. "What? That's ridiculous…." She said._

" _I don't believe so… I saw them… together… It was… they were…" Jenna stuttered and started to rethink telling Stef what she saw between Monte and her ex-girlfriend. The expression on Stef's face was not describable. Her jaw was clenched, her eyes were big and full of rage, her face was turning a boiling color red._

" _Spit it out, Jenna! WHAT DID YOU SEE?" Stef yelled._

 _Jenna swallowed a big lump in her throat before speaking again. "I couldn't believe it too at first, I mean… you and Lena are like, the ultimate couple…. But I went by the school the other day to talk to monte and to try to make things right with her…and they had…" Jenna hesitated for a moment. "They were in Lena's office and the door was closed and… they were on her desk… kissing."_

" _Please tell me this is a joke, Jenna… and if it is, it's absolutely not funny!" Stef couldn't believe her ears. Lena would never do that._

" _I'm sorry, Stef." Jenna said, she tried walking over to Stef's side of the table. Stef had her elbows on the table and her hands in her hear. Tears were threatening to spill out of her eyes._

" _Please, Jenna… I'm sorry but can you please leave, I just need some time to think for a minute."_

 _Jenna didn't want to 'snitch' on Lena and cause trouble in their marriage, but she felt like she had to. She had known Stef since they were in high school. Stef had always been there for her. "I… I don't want to bring trouble… It's just that if someone did this to me behind my back I would want to know." And with that Jenna disappeared from Stef's side._

 _Stef could hear the front door opening and closing, she was alone now. She didn't want to cry yet. This had to be a mistake, there had to be a reasonable explanation for all of this. She decided that she was just going to wait until Lena was home ad not to freak out until she got an actual conformation from her._

 _Jesus, Jude and Brandon all came home and went straight to their rooms. It was getting later and later. Callie and Marianna would be at the party till at least 11:30. It was now 9:30 PM and Lena still wasn't home. 'what if she's with monte right now, having a romantic get together?' Stef thought to herself. She quickly shook the images that her mind had created about her wife in bed with monte out of her brain and sat down on the couch… Lena could be showing up any minute now._

 _Stef's heart felt like it was bouncing through her whole body when she heard the front door click open. She straightened herself on the couch as she heard Lena kick off her shoes in the hall. She hadn't practiced what she was going to ask, or say._

 _Lena came around the corner and into the living room where her wife was sitting. "Hey, what are you still doing up?" she asked before joining Stef on the couch, curling up next to her. Stef abruptly got up from her spot and started pacing trough the room, thinking about words to say to Lena at this moment._

" _Is everything okay, Love?" Lena asked with a worried look on her face, her head following Stef's pacing._

 _Stef suddenly walked over to the chair that was placed across from her wife. "Are you having an affair with Monte." She asked without any mention showing on her face. She was in police mode, trying to spot any trace of lying in Lena's behavior like she did with the criminals when she interrogated them. Now it was the turn of Lena's heart to feel like bouncing through her body._

" _NO!" she almost instantly said._

 _Lie…_

" _Are you in love with her?"_

" _NO" she said, louder this time._

 _Lie..._

" _Then why are you kissing her in your office with the door closed?"_

" _I'm not!" She answered again, her voice started shaking._

 _LIE…_

" _God, you're suck a fucking bad liar! STOP LYING TO ME LENA!" Stef Yelled at her. In this moment, she didn't care that the kids were home in their room. She got up from the chair and started to pace around again. "I'm giving you one more chance to tell me the truth Lena. Are you sleeping with Monte?" She asked, her voice trembling with anger while tears started uncontrollably streaming down her face._

" _Yes." Lena said with the smallest voice, so small that it was almost not audible to Stef._

" _The answer was like slap in the face for Stef. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" She started screaming so loud that Lena was sure the kids had heard._

" _Stef, I'm so sorry." Lena said, her voice once again just above a whisper. She couldn't blame her at all for being mad at her. She was ashamed of herself, ashamed for lying, ashamed for cheating but most of all ashamed for actually being able to start falling for another person. Stef made her happy, and she knew she loved Stef more than she loved monte, but Monte gave her a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time, something she didn't feel anymore with Stef._

" _Sorry? You're sorry? I can't believe you actually did this Lena! How long has this shit been going on?" Stef did not even know if she wanted to know the answer. She got no response, Lena was looking down at her hands. "How long have you been fucking your boss Lena? Answer me!" She yelled, her eyes were spitting fire at Lena._

 _Lena finally looked up and her eyes met her wife's furious ones. "A few weeks. I'm so sorry, baby." Tears were now streaming down Lena's face too. Stef turned her back to her and put her hands on the dresser in front of her. Lena continued pleading with her. "I love you, you're…"_

 _She didn't get to finish her sentence before Stef suddenly turned around and threw one of the books that was placed on the dresser at Lena, it missed her by only a few inches. "WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT? Oh, I guess it's me… because I'm not a good wife, I'm not paying enough attention to you? That's it?" She started laughing desperately through her tears. "Why?" she asked again._

" _Stef, please listen to me." She begged._

 _Stef held her hands up in a defensive way before saying, "Go ahead, I Really can't wait to see how you are going to justify this!"_

" _I will never be able to… justify this! I cheated on you, while all you did was trying to keep things alright between us." She sobbed._

" _How could you do this to me?" Stef asked. But before Lena could even formulate an answer in her mind Stef yelled again, "You fucking slu…" this time it was Stef who was cut off mid-sentence. The front door flew open again. Callie and Marianna walked inside with wide smiles showing on their faces, still talking abut the fun they had at the party. They noticed their parents both in tears in the living room._

" _Hey moms… What's wrong, why are you crying?" Callie said. She walked into the living room but was stopped half way by Stef._

" _Girls, please go upstairs." She told the, not wanting to explain anything to them right now. The two teenagers made their way upstairs quickly, shutting the door to their room. As soon as Stef heard the door to their room close she spoke again. "How was it? Was she good?" She asked, "Was she better than me, Lena? How many times did she cum for you? Because that's why you like it right? I can't cum for you and she can?" She had never felt more hurt in her entire life._

" _I love you Stef, I don't know how I can make this right." Lena sobbed._

 _Then Stef suddenly got her next question in her head. She really did not know if she even wanted an answer from her wife, "Do you… do you love her?"_

 _There was a dead silence in the room. Lena looked up to her wife again and spoke, "Stef, I will never love anyone like I love you."_

 _Stef slammed her fist on the table, "ANSWER MY QUESTION, DO YOU LOVE HER?"_

" _YES!" Lena yelled back, the raw emotion, a mixture of shame and anger in her eyes. "I do… But I love you too Stef, I love you so much." She added quickly._

 _Stef felt like all of her blood left her body. She was weak, her whole life had been turned upside down in just a few minutes. She walked away from Lena. Halfway out of the living room she turned around, "Sleep on the couch, please… Lena" she whispered. The curly haired woman watched as her wife made her way upstairs. She did what she was asked to do. She got a blanket out of the dresser and cried herself to sleep on the couch, She didn't plan for things to go this far. The thing with monte started with a kiss that only lasted a mere second. After that things started getting more and more complicated, feelings started to grow and it all lead to this very moment._

 **So, I decided to leave this Chapter at this and end it with the flashback. Please review if you think I should continue or if you have ANY requests! Thank you for reading!**


	2. Talking

**Hi guys! Thank you for all the positive reviews, they mean allot and they really motivate me to write faster and better! Here is the second chapter! It took me a while to write… and actually it's just a great excuse to write SMUT! Yes… smut… If you don't want to read the smutty part, I put a** _ ***Warning SMUT ahead***_ **and a** _ ***End of SMUT***_ **in** __ **BOLD AND CURSIVE before and after the smutty part so you know where to stop and start reading again. My smut is pretty intense… just saying. Anyways, just a reminder that English is NOT my first language and asking you guys to point out my typos and grammatical errors to me if they really bother you so I can fix them… Happy reading!**

"Hey, Stef, you wanted to talk?", Lena touched her shoulder so she would turn around. The show had just ended and the family was headed outside to wait for Marianna. The kids kept walking towards the car as Lena and Stef stood still. During the whole show, Stef and Lena sat next to each other, there was no fighting, no arguing and no yelling at all, but there was a slight awkwardness. The two didn't speak more than three words to each other during the whole show, a simple 'Did you see that!' when Marianna did a stunt or 'Excuse me' when Lena had to pass Stef to go to the toilet were about the only things said between the two. They were not together in a romantic way anymore and before that they had always been a couple so, they didn't know how to act around each other.

Stef mentally kicked herself for asking Lena to talk to her after the show had ended. She hadn't thought through what she was going to say or ask her. She felt like there was a gap in her life and she wanted it to be filled, the kids were so used to having Lena in the house but, when she left there was a certain chaos, a structure was disoriented. She wanted everything to get to a new normal, for the sake of the kids, and for the sake of herself. Over the course of the last six months she tried so many things to forget Lena, she agreed to let Jenna take her on dates, she even tried online dating websites. She just couldn't get to imagine herself being with anyone else than her soon to be ex-wife and it worried her. Lena would be with Monte, they would maybe even get married and maybe even have kids together. While Stef was doomed to be alone, never getting over Lena. No, she needed to talk to her, about everything but, not here, not now in front of the kids and other people.

For the first time in months she felt Lena's hand on her, when her hand touched her shoulder she let out a sigh as her spine tingled. Only this woman could have this big of an effect on her with just the slightest touch of her hand. She turned around and answered, "Yeah, I uhm do but, maybe uhm not here… not now." She couldn't help the way the tingle went from her spine to her core and she was sure Lena saw it.

Lena looked her in the eyes. There was something in them that she hadn't seen for a long time, she knew that haze to well, it was a haze of lust. Then Lena realized that she hadn't removed her hand from the blonde's shoulder yet, she quickly withdrew her hand from Stef and brought it to her own side. Lena was never good at resisting that look but, she had to. She and Stef were no longer a couple and she couldn't show weakness. She was with monte and she was sure that she had made the right decision, also Stef was not a yoyo, Lena couldn't just drop her and pick her up again when she pleased. She shook it off and convinced herself that she must have misread the look in Stef's eyes.

"Then where and when?" Lena asked trying to keep her voice under control.

Stef thought for a minute, maybe it would be smart to meet somewhere public, so she could make sure to keep her hands at bay, but still secluded enough to talk about this very personal subject. "Maybe I can stop by your office tomorrow afternoon? I'll bring lunch…" She searched for confirmation in Lena's face.

"sounds good." Lena flashed a soft smile at her and then her eyes shifted to Callie who suddenly cheered for some reason.

Marianna had walked out of the building, her hair in a messy bun and her duffle bag hanging over her shoulder. She did a theatrical bow as the others cheered for her.

"You did amazing, sweetheart." Lena said as she wrapped her arms around her youngest daughter. She had always felt a special connection to Marianna. She of course loved the other children just as much as she loved her but, there was something about Marianna that just made her not able to stay angry at Marianna for too long or raise her voice as loud as she could with the others, saying no to Marianna was almost impossible to Lena. Marianna knew this and sometimes even took advantage of it a little.

Then it hit her, her moms were both here… together. She hadn't seen them together in a while now and she was under the impression that they would never speak again. "You're both here?" The look on her face was pure questioning as if she thought she was hallucinating. Her moms looked at each other and then back to her, both with a reassuring look on their faces, Stef got closer and hugged Marianna too.

"We will always be a family, no matter what happens, I love all of you and nothing will change that… Ever... Things may be rough for us as a family right now, but we'll get used to it and we're going to overcome this, Together, as a family." Stef said as she looked at all of her kids before her gaze fell upon Lena again. Suddenly the air was think with a cocktail of feelings, one hard to explain. Stef, Lena and all of the kids felt it, a mixture of love, hope, family and reassurance. Jesus was the first to step to his moms and wrap his arms around both of them. Marianna, Callie, Jude and Brandon followed soon after. A family group hug, a moment of warmth and togetherness, something they had not felt in so long. This feeling used to be a daily thing, during breakfast when everyone was sitting at the table, when everyone had to get ready for school and work and on all the holydays. That feeling familiarity, the feeling of being home. The hug lasted long, everyone felt the need to hold on to each other for a moment. At one point in the embrace, Lena and Stef found each other's eyes once again before looking back down at their children.

After the embrace, all the kids said goodbye to Lena and got in Stef's car. Stef stood outside with Lena for a few more moments, "Oh, before you go, I asked the kids if they wanted to stay over at my place this weekend…" Lena said casually.

The blonde's facial expression changed from happy to annoyed in two seconds. "You're asking me if I want my children to sleep in Monte's house?" Stef couldn't believe Lena would even ask her that. When Stef found out that Lena and Monte were having an affair she almost got them out of Anchor beach because she didn't want them anywhere near that Monte, let alone enter a school that is owned by her. Now Lena was asking her to send her kids over to Monte's house so she can play mommy? Stef was about to say no and walk away when she started thinking about it a little more. They had just shared a nice family moment, nobody could take her place in the hearts of her children… and she couldn't keep the kids away from Lena just because she didn't like monte. Lena was everything to the kids and they would probably enjoy a whole weekend with her, lately they have only been seeing her during school and sometimes she came to pick them u to have dinner at some restaurant. It was important for the children to keep their bond with Lena intact.

"Alright, pick them up Friday after dinner then…" Stef said "I'll come by the school tomorrow at lunchtime, okay?" she added and with that she opened her car door and got inside of it.

Lena walked to her own car and started driving in the opposite direction to her own home, well… technically it was Monte's home. She drove past the familiar 'Arlow and son floristry' and decided to make a short stop. Monte must have been a little worried and probably a little lonely today after she left work so, she deserved something nice.

Lena parked her car in front of the floristry and made her way inside of it. "Hey, long time no see, Lady" a short man with a mid length grey beard and piercing blue eyes said when she walked inside. Lena used to come here all the time to buy Stef flowers after work, she always made quite some small talk with the man when she did. His name was mister Arlow and he ran the floristry together with his son David. She politely smiled and continued to look for flowers to give to Monte. She decided to get chrysanthemums in all kinds of colors, she thought they fit with Monte's personality and figured she'd like them. She picked out which ones she wanted for David to wrapped up in her bouquet before walking to the cash register where mister Arlow was already seated.

"How are ya, sweetie? How's the kids?" He said with his thick southern accent.

"We're all good, my oldest is getting ready for college soon." She answered. She suddenly saw a look of confusion on mister Arlow's face. "What's wrong?" She asked quickly.

"Wasn't your wife extremely allergic to chrysanthemums? Last time you got them for her she was swollen up like a balloon!" He answered.

Lena remembered that moment, she had gotten Stef a bunch of chrysanthemums for valentine's day along with a few other things. Stef took a sniff at the flowers and a few minutes later she was lying on the floor almost not able to breath anymore with big red bumps all over her body. Instead of going to a romantic dinner, they spent their night in the hospital for Stef's allergic reaction.

She didn't know if she should tell mister Arlow the truth or not… He was a sweet guy but, he always asked so many questions and she did not feel like explaining the divorce to him, or anyone else for that matter. "They're not for my wife, They're for… actually…. We are uhm getting a divorce, I'm living with someone else now."

Mister Arlow was confused. Lena never talked anything but god things about her wife, she had always talked about her like she was some kind of goddess in human form. "How?" He asked, a shocked look plastered on his face.

"I cheated on her…" She said with an 'as a matter of fact' expression on her face and a flat tone of voice. She was already under so much stress and she was just getting used to all of this herself. She didn't want to justify anything to anyone anymore. She cheated on her perfect little wife and she was a horrible person. She absolutely did not need some florist to ask her about all the details about how she let her marriage fail. "...with my boss." She added to her last statement before setting the money on the counter and storming out of the store with her flowers, she didn't even wait for her change back.

Lena drove home a with her foot on the gas pedal a little harder than usual. She was more frustrated than she had been in a long while, she wanted to be home in Monte's arms as soon as possible and let out some steam that has been building inside of her body the whole day. She pulled up to the driveway of the house and quickly made her way out of the car, she made long steps until she reached the front door and opened it.

As soon as Monte heard the front door click open she rushed towards Lena and wrapped her arms around her neck in excitement. "I missed you baby!" she said.

Lena looked at her girlfriend, she looked adorable she was wearing black shorts and an oversized grey sweatshirt, her full black hair was tied back in a ponytail with a few strands hanging next to her face, framing it. "I missed you too, I got you flowers!" Lena said, holding on to her a little longer than usual.

Monte took the flowers from her girlfriend and smelled them, she looked back up at Lena with a big childish grin on her face, "Oh, they're gorgeous, Babe… Just like you!" She was going to ask Lena if she was ready to eat dinner but before she got the chance she felt her lips being connected with hers.

 _ ***Warning SMUT ahead***_

Monte bit back a moan as Lena roughly turned them around and shoved her against the wooden front door where they have been standing. "Hmm, Lena… don't stop, Baby." her head fell back against the door as Lena started to suck on her pulse point. Lena's hands were roaming all over Monte's body, starting at her face, caressing it feeling it's softness. Then lower to cup her full breasts over the fabric of the sweatshirt while her other hand made its way to squeeze her curvy hip. Lena loved that about her, her curves, they looked and felt like they were carefully sculptured by an amazing artist.

"Take me to bed, Babe." Monte seductively slurred.

Lena grabbed her ass with both hands before lifting her up, Monte's legs automatically hooked around Lena's slender waist. They stumbled towards their bedroom where Lena placed her down on the bed and straddled her. Lena kept on kissing her girlfriend, their tongues rolling around each other, stopping only when Lena pulled her own top over her head.

Monte growled when Lena's caramel skin came in view. Ever since she started working at anchor beach she wondered what Lena's skin would look and feel like underneath her clothes. Monte's hands made their way up to Lena's back to unhook her bra from the back. She moaned and bucked her hips a little when the bra fell to the bed, Lena had the most perfect breasts; a slightly lighter color than the rest of her skin expect for her nipples, those were a deep whisky brown. Monte couldn't help but leaning forward and taking one of the nipples in her mouth, licking and sucking hard on it.

"Uhh, that feels so good, Monte…" Lena cried out with a moan. She felt Monte's tongue on her breast and could feel herself starting to soak through her panties. She couldn't take it anymore, she had to taste her, she needed to hear Monte moan for her. She enjoyed the feeling of Monte's lips being wrapped around her hard, sensitive nipple for a few more seconds before she pushed her off and pinned her wrists to the bed. "I'm gonna eat you so good, babe." Lena whispered in her ear seductively, her voice full of sex.

Lena let go of Monte's wrists to pull her sweater over her head, she quickly made work of her bra too. Both woman were now shirtless. Lena trailed kissed, leaving marks from Monte's neck to her breasts where she stopped to return the favor of lightly flicking her tongue over her cinnamon nipples. Monte was purring and squirming beneath her, her back arching to try and get more and more of Lena's mouth on her breast. Lena smiled at her in a naughty way before making her way to Monte's Shorts, undoing the button and then slowly and skillfully opening the zipper with her mouth. Lena could already smell the musky fragrance of her girlfriend's womanhood filling her nostrils, intoxicating her brain. She pulled the shorts down together with Monte's panties to reveal her shaven pussy. Lena made a strangled noise when she saw how wet the pale skinned woman was, just for her. "Do you want it, Baby?" Lena playfully teased, she wanted to hear monte beg for it.

"Oh yes, give it to me, Lena." Monte bit her lip as she tried pushing her core onto her lover. Her pussy was throbbing with lust, she needed to feel Lena's mouth or fingers on her now.

Lena had a devilish look on her face, "Say please, Babe…" she dipped down and gave Monte's clit a quick lick, careful not to put too much pressure on it yet, she wanted Monte to go crazy for her.

"Please." Monte husked, her hands flew to her own nipples to toy with them.

Lena was almost feeling sorry for her but, she decided to draw the teasing out a little more. "Please what?" she said.

"Please fuck me, Lena, please!" monte moaned, tears were almost starting to form in her eyes.

Lena was finally satisfied with the teasing and slowly moved her finger up and down Monte's slit, teasing, gathering up the sweet earthy slickness before pushing inside of her pussy. Monte's walls were tight against Lena's long slender fingers.

"Oh god, yes. That feels so good inside me." Monte moaned, the feeling of Lena's fingers finally being inside her was shattering. Lena slowly added another finger and started pushing in and out of her, starting a lazy rhythm. Monte started to squirm, Lena's fingers would move upward to rub against her g-spot with every movement she made, making monte whine for her.

"Please make me cum, Lena. Eat me, please?!" Monte begged, she knew Lena got hot when she begged for it. She felt her pussy lips being spread open by two of Lena's fingers to expose her swollen clit. She saw Lena's head bending down before she felt her lips closing around her clit, starting to suck at it, gently at first but then progressing to become more aggressive. Relentless, almost overwhelming, sucking and licking at Monte's very sensitive nub.

"Please don't stop, baby… I'm gonna cum so fucking hard for you! Please don't fucking stop, Lena" Monte started begging, Pulling Lena's hair and squeezing her thighs around her head. Lena wouldn't stop for anything in the world, the noises that came from monte made her even hotter. She wanted to hear just how loud her girlfriend got when she orgasmed, she loved it.

Then suddenly Monte screamed for her, "OH MY GOD, Lena I'm cumming… FUCK, I'm cumming all over your pretty face baby!" it felt like fireworks went off in her core when her orgasm hit her and it felt like time slowed down for a minute as the waves of her orgasm hit her hard before slowing down.

Lena could feel her girlfriend's pussy pulsing as she rode out her orgasm, she kept licking gently until she saw Monte twitching obviously from overstimulation. And then came Lena's favorite part, she got out from between her boss's thighs, the taste of her all over her lips. Monte was still shaking but she smiled at her lover, Lena leaned forward and kissed her, making her taste herself. They both moaned into the kiss.

They laid there for a few minutes. Breathing heavy. In each other's arms.

When Monte's breathing came back to normal, she got in between Lena's leg's and pulled of her pants and panties one by one, now she was completely naked too.

"Turn around, Love." Monte said.

That nickname 'Love' Monte had never used it before, it was something special that Stef Always used when talking to Lena or the kids. Lena didn't think much of it, it was a common thing to call someone 'Love'. She did what she was told and turned around so she was now on all fours. She wondered what Monte was planning in her head.

Monte was on her knees besides her, she leaned down, kissing Lena softly on her back. Then she slid her hands under Lena's body and cupped her breasts, the kisses on Lena's back became more passionate. The curly woman's breathing became deeper and her nipples stood straight, responding to her touch. Monte pushed her hair aside, kissing the back of Lena's back, which was already covered in goosebumps. She moved back and looked at Lena. "Mmmmm", she purred, "Just how I've always wanted you" referring to Lena being on all fours for her.

Monte now continued kissing down the small of her girlfriends back; Lena could feel her warm lips, her hot breath, and the little flicks of her tongue. Her kisses moved down to the crack of Lena's ass, and slowly she kept kissing down. Lena's body shuddered as Monte's hands squeezed her ass firmly, Lena could tell that she was taking a good hard look at her. She wiggled her ass a little, "Like what you see, babe?" she asked.

Monte didn't say a word, she was n=in awe of what she saw, she leaned in and gave Lena's pussy a nice long lick. Lena felt like electricity had just shot through her body, she laid her upper body on the bed, lifting her ass up higher so Monte could have all of her and she did… she took all of her. Monte's mouth clamped down on lena's cpre, het tongue eagerly wriggling it's way inside the lips. She licked and sucked and kissed and nibbled.

Lena felt her orgasm building and Monte could tell by her soft moans that were slowly becoming more intense. Her tongue started flicking fast and Lena was right on the edge… and then she stopped.

"No, please don't stop, Monte" Lena could barely get the words out as she was breathing so hard.

Monte giggled, "This is for all the teasing you did earlier." Monte purred.

"Baby, please?" Lena panted, she could see the sexy smile on Monte's face, it drove her even crazier.

Suddenly Monte flipped onto her back and made her way under Lena. "You know what I always wanted to try, babe?" Monte said. Sometimes Lena forgot that her girlfriend had never been with a woman before her, the way she showed her skills in the bedroom surely didn't prove that.

"Have you ever heard about scissoring?" Monte asked. Lena thought it was cute that Monte had never done it befoe and she was thrilled to show her how it's done, she flipped them over and posisioned herself, sliding down until their cores were touching. Slowly their hips bean to move together.

Feeling Monte's hot wet heat sliding against hers was driving Lena crazy. Their hips moved in unison, their bodies sliding up and down. Lena felt her orgasm building again and began rocking her hips harder, thrusting her pussy onto Monte's. They could feel their clits bumping against each other and both started to breath hard, sweating, moaning, their bodies moving together. They were looking into each other's eyes as they drove each other of the edge, and flew right over it. They came together.

They collapsed into a heap of hot, naked bodies, slowly letting reality come back to them.

"I love you, so much baby" Monte was the first one to speak.

"I love you too" Lena answered back, still sensitive from the intense orgasm she just had.

 _ ***End of SMUT***_

After a while they decided that they had to take a shower because they were both stick and sweaty. In the shower, they talked a little about how Marianna's dance competition went. The subject of Stef never came to call. After the shower, they slid under the covers, falling asleep in each other's arms. And the dinner Monte had made was long forgotten…

The next morning Monte woke up to the sound of Lena calling her name, "Monte, wake up sleepyhead."

Monte slowly opened her eyes, Lena was sitting on the edge of the bed with a breakfast tray on her lap. Monte smiled, Lena had made her breakfast, it was the small things like this that Lena did that made Monte love her even more. She had made chocolate chip waffles scrambled eggs and fruit salad with Monte's favorite fruits.

"Oh gosh, you're too sweet!" Monte said, as Lena handed her delicious smelling the tray of food.

Lena kissed her on the forehead and started getting ready for another day at work. Monte finished her food and quickly did the same. They both left the house in separate cars.

When they arrived at school Lena got out of her car followed by Monte doing the same thing. Their parking spots were right next to each other. As soon as Lena got out of her car she heard the voice of Marianna.

"Mom! Jesus stole my SUPER expensive earbuds and then her broke them!' Marianna was walking towards her followed by her twin brother.

"No, I paid half of the money for them, So I didn't steal them, I am co-owner!" Jesus rolled his eyes. They reached their mom's car and both started at her intensely waiting for her to pick a side in their 'ear bud war'.

Lena looked back at them… She couldn't resist Marianna's pout and so she said, "Jesus, you broke them. So, you buy new ones… do extra chores so you get extra allowance and buy your sister a new pair."

Monte was still standing at her car; the twins hadn't even noticed her even though she was standing right next to them. Lena's eyes shot up to look at monte before she cleared her throat. The kids turned around and looked at Monte. Marianna's pout changed into a disturbed one. She didn't like monte at all, neither did any of the other kids. Did her mom really see something in her? Something she didn't see in Stef? She was a total homewrecker and Marianna didn't have any respect for her. Monte smiled at her, trying to look as natural as possible. It was important to Lena that her kids liked her girlfriend but up until now all of them have been giving her the cold shoulder and icy looks when they saw her walking in the school halls.

"Good morning Marianna! You look stunning today." Monte said, she knew she would het no response, but at least she tried.

Marianna was about to say something rude but Jesus stopped her and said, "Come on Marianna Let's go…" Jesus pulled his sister away by the arm, "Love you mom." He said before walking away completely.

"Love you too, sweetheart." Lena said back.

Monte had a look on her face that sad 'I tried'. She shrugged her shoulders before leaning in and kissing Lena on the cheek and walking into the school building. The curly haired woman followed.

Lena was buried in work; the exams were just over and everything was just a mess in her office. Files were splayed all over her desk and she couldn't concentrate on her work because she knew Stef was coming in at lunch time. She tried to do as much work as possible before she heard the school bell ring at 12:15. Lunch time. Not long after the bell rang there was a familiar three knocks on the door of her office.

"Stef" Lena said.

"Lena" Stef said.

"You look, good! I like the…" Stef was referring to Lena's skirt but she couldn't find the words so she just gestured at it. It was a tight black, knee length tube skirt, it showed off Lena's perfect figure and it was enough to almost drive Stef nuts.

Lena smiled, "Thank you, I like the…." She said jokingly, referring to Stef's police uniform. They both laughed, and they both felt less awkward. Stef went to sit down on the couch she knew oh so well on the other side of Lena's office, Lena joined her and sat on the other side of it.

They stared at each other for a few minutes before Stef started talking. "I… I wanted to talk to you about a few… things." She started fidgeting with the button on her sleeve, she was nervous. Lena put her hand on hers to stop her from fidgeting any further. A shock of electricity pulsed through the both of them, Lena quickly put her hand back in her lap. She did not want to get carried away. Stef had come here to discuss something that was probably very important.

"What did you want to talk about, Love?" Lena said and before thinking about it the word had left her lips. 'love'

 _Love. My love. Love. I live you._

"I'm sorry." She said as soon as she realized what she had said. Her face was turning a light shade of crimson and she looked at her hands.

"It's okay, just don't let monte hear." Stef said, Lena couldn't make out f she was joking or not so she just gave her a half smile. "I wanted to talk about this whole situation… The kids are confused and scared and I think we should all sit down together and… discuss a new normal. Set new boundaries for them and we also need to discuss things together, I know we are getting a divorce but that doesn't have to mean anything to the kids. We are still their parents and I think they deserve to have both of their moms fully in their lives." Stef had practiced this speech a million times before actually getting out of the house.

Lena was about to answer when the door to her office flew open without a warning.

"Monte." Lena said.

"Lena" Monte said, her eyes shifting towards the blonde sitting next to her girlfriend on the couch.

"Monte…" Stef said with no expression on her face whatsoever, she couldn't help it but, she suddenly was in defense mode.

"St-Stef" Monte stuttered as she remembered the last time she saw Stef.

" _Get your shit and get out of here!" Stef yelled. She was standing in the hallway. The kids were all at home and they were watching the fight going on between their moms from the kitchen._

" _Stef, I told you… to calm the hell down. I just brought Monte here to talk, like you asked me to!" Lena yelled back. If looks could kill Both of the woman would be dead by now._

 _Stef stepped closer to Lena and was now yelling right into her face, "No I called you so that you could come over and talk, WITHOUTH YOUR LITTLE WHORE!"_

" _Well she's here so you're just gonna have to suck it up and deal with it like a fucking adult, Stefanie!" With that she pulled Monte inside and into the living room to sit on the couch._

 _They heard Stef slam the front door shut with a bang and send the kids outside into the yard or upstairs into their room. She walked into the living room and roughly sat down on a chair right across Monte, she started into her eyes intensely. Monte felt intimidated, scared even. Lena did not feel scared at all, in fact, she was furious._

 _After Stef found out about the affair a week ago, there had been nothing but really nasty fights filled with curing and yelling and throwing stuff at each other. Lena and Stef were both ready to give up on their marriage and they wanted to settle tings in an adult manner but as soon as Lena mentioned that she brought Monte with her Stef lost it again. Lena thought that since Monte was a big part of the reason they decided to get divorced, it would only be logical to bring her along._

" _So, you two are in love? What now? You're gonna get married? Have babies?" Stef let out a chuckle, this whole thing was ridiculous._

" _I'm moving in with Monte." Lena said, out of nothing. Shots fired._

" _What?" Stef knew that they were sleeping together but she never thought that this thing between them was so serious that Lena would actually leave the house she begged Stef to live in, in the first place to go love with Monte._

 _Lena saw the honest confusion and hurt on Stef's face and for a moment she thought about calming her down._

" _How could you leave the house where your CHILDREN live, to go live with your SLUT?" Stef's expression changed back into the one from before, spitting fire out of her eyes and raising her voice. "Have you lost your goddamn mind, Lena?" She added._

 _Lena couldn't believe that Stef actually thought she was just throwing the kids aside "I will of course see the Kids every day at school and I'll pick them up every chance I get Stef, I love them more than anything!"_

 _Stef couldn't believe her ears. Lena was moving OUT of the house, this fast? And she was moving in with this homewrecking whore? "Yeah, like you loved me more than anything, right? Look how that turned out!" she yelled._

" _Stef, I just want peace… We fight every damn day! I need to get away from that!" Lena yelled back. She loved the kids and this house so much, but after work there was just nothing but fights in the house and it wasn't good for her health. Also, the children probably heard all of it, since they didn't really bother to be quiet while fighting. None of the kids said anything about the fights or monte, in the morning there was a silent tension but nobody talked about it. The kids never heard their mom's fight like this and they hoped it would blow over._

" _I want my kids nowhere near this bitch!" Stef slammed her fist against the table as her eyes shifted between Monte and Stef._

 _Monte hadn't said anything yet. Lena couldn't take the insults that were constantly thrown against Monte and decided to make a remark about it. "Stop calling Monte all of that… It doesn't make any sense, Stef."_

 _Stef ignored what Lena said and continued talking. "I want my children off anchor beach… as soon as possible!"_

 _Lena started to get tears in her eyes, If Stef send the kids to another school she would have even less time with them. It would kill her._

 _Now that stef was getting emotional Monte was getting furious with Stef. She was inconsiderate towards her own children in the process of trying to hurt Lena as much as possible. She got up from the couch and looked Stef dead in the eye before saying, "You can't do that, you're just going to…" A hard blow to the face stopped her mid-sentence._

 _Stef had gotten up from her char and punched Monte in the face. She was intruding in her house and now she wanted to tell her what she could and couldn't do? "Stay out of this, or I'll rip your chipper fucking vocal cords right out of your slutty little throat and use them to strangle you! Another fist was thrown into Monte's face and another one._

 _Stef was about to throw another punch at Monte but, she was stopped by her wife holding her arm back. "Stef!" she yelled "Stef STOP" she turned Stef's head to look at and look her in the eyes before trying again, "Stef, please stop!" she begged._

 _Lena's eyes pulled Stef out of her black out and back into reality. Monte had her arms crossed in front of her face to protect herself from another blow. Lena quickly sat beside her to examine her face. She had blood coming from her lip, a swollen nose and a cut above her eyebrow, that was definitely put there by Stef's wedding ring. Black eyes were slowly starting to develop. Tears were streaming from her eyes and strangled cried escaped her throat._

 _Lena helped her off the couch, not even looking at Stef or paying attention to her anymore. She helped Monte walk to the front door and slammed it shut behind her. "Monte, come one, let's go… you need to see a doctor, baby."_

 _Stef sat back down on the chair and let out a big sigh of frustration. In the next few days she got a call from Lena saying that she should be lucky and extremely thankful that Monte didn't want to press charges against her. Lena would be picking up her belongings and come talk to the kids in the next week, right now she needed to be there for Monte. It was really over, in that moment, Stef realized this it was really done between them._

 **Tadaaa, another chapter! Thank you for reading! Please leave a review saying what you think of the chapter and if you have any requests for met to put into the story** **I'll upload soon, bye!**


	3. feeling

**Hi guys, just posting a quick chapter! This chapter is mainly focused on Monte's thoughts on Stef. There is a smut scene but it isn't too smutty… who am I kidding It's freaking filthy like all my other smut. … If you don't want to read the smutty part, I put a** _ ***Warning SMUT ahead***_ **and a** _ ***End of SMUT***_ **in** __ **BOLD AND CURSIVE before and after the smutty part so you know where to stop and start reading again. Before you start reading I would like to point out again that my first language is NOT English, so please bear with me. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, happy reading! PLEASE don't forget to leave a review.**

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you had company…" Monte said, her eyes looked like those of a deer caught in the headlights of a fast driving car. Her gaze was focused on Lena, not wanting to even look at Stef. Scared.

"I- I- I'll come back later." Monte stuttered. She started to back away out of the room slowly until Stef's voice stopped her.

Stef took a deep breath in and let it out with a small grunt, "No, please come in. I wanted to talk to you too, Monte." She said. No matter how much she hated the dark-haired woman, she was now part of Lena's life and that meant she was in the lives of their children too. Besides her children were going to spend the weekend at her house. She felt obligated to at least have a civil talk with her to ae sure that everyone was on the same page when it came to the kids.

Monte hesitated a little before deciding to re-enter the room, still not directly looking at Stef. She closed the door behind her and walked over to where the two women were sitting before sitting down next to Lena on the couch.

The vibe in the room was one of pure awkwardness. As soon as Monte sat down, a deadly silence fell between the three of them. Lena and monte both waited for Stef to say something but, Stef was also momentarily at a loss of words. She was sitting on a couch with her wife and her wife's girlfriend, what does one say in a situation like this? She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again, not knowing what kind of sentence to formulate.

After a few moments, Lena decided to break the silence, "Stef? You we're saying?"

Stef swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. She wanted to handle this in the most adult manner she could possibly think of.

"Like I just said, I wanted to discuss some things, since the kids are now going to spend the weekend with the both of you." Stef started, "But first I think I owe you an apology, Monte."

"Stef…" Monte started. She could see that it was very hard for Stef to apologize to her, especially since she was the one who 'stole' her wife from her. Monte had found peace in the fact that Stef had punched her that day. She in some way felt like Stef hitting her almost evened out with the cheating and sneaking behind her back she and Lena had done.

The blonde looked away for a second before her eyes met Monte's, "No. I do, I went too far by hitting you and I am sorry. I lost my temper and I hope you can forgive me for that."

Lena's eyes started tearing up and she was doing her best to keep them at bay. She and Monte were the ones who betrayed her and who lied to her but yet here Stef was, apologizing for losing her temper because of it. The apology made Lena feel even worse than when Stef first found out and yelled at her, the apology showed Stef giving up. It showed a sense of defeat towards Monte.

Monte gave Stef a faint smile, not really knowing how to act around her. A polite; "Thank you." was all she could mutter at the moment.

Lena wanted to be the next one to speak but before she could Stef started again. "The kids are going to stay over at your house for the weekend, right?"

Stef was still looking at monte but Lena was the one to answer her question, "Yes, I'm very excited."

Lena had bought all kinds of movies that they could watch like they always used to do when she and Stef were still together. She had also gotten board games in the hope that playing them would help the kids to maybe connect a little with monte. The way the kids acted towards Monte made Lena sad but she understood where the behavior came from. She knew that she had not only cheated on Stef when she started seeing Monte but also on the kids. On her family. She would never forget the way they looked at her when they came downstairs the day after Stef found out about the affair. She knew they had heard everything that was going on, Stef had been yelling very loud. The kids had tried to hide the disappointment on their faces but Lena saw it. She knew she had messed up.

Stef spoke again, this time looking at Lena, "I want to be sure that _our_ children will not be forced to engage in any activity with Monte if they don't want to." She put emphases on the word 'our'.

She knew that there was nothing to worry about when the kids were with Lena, they were more than safe in her care, like they had always been. It was the fact that monte was going to be present too that worried her. She did not want monte to push herself in their lives and forcing them to do anything they were not comfortable with. Monte was NOT their mother and she was never going to be.

Lena felt Monte tense up next to her. Monte had wanted nothing more than Lena's kids to like her. As a matter of fact, she often wished that she had met Lena earlier than Stef had, so that she could be the one that had married her and started a family with her. She wouldn't have to try so hard to get any type of connection with them. She wanted to eventually marry Lena and start her own family with her but, Lena already had a family and Lena would never want to do any of that if her kids did not fully support it.

"Yeah. Of course," Monte answered, "I would never force them to do anything, I just want Lena to enjoy a nice weekend with the kids."

"It's nothing personal." Stef half lied. "I just want my kids to feel comfortable."

"I understand, Stef." Monte said, she was starting to feel a little but more relaxed.

The three women discussed a few other small things concerning the weekend. When they, especially Stef, felt like they were all on one line when it came to how this weekend would go down, the lunchbreak was almost over and Stef had to get back to work.

"Thank you, Stef… for stopping by." Lena said as all of them stood up off the couch.

Stef smiled at her, "Sure… no problem."

Stef walked towards the door and flashed Monte a quick half smile before leaving.

During the conversation, Monte had noticed the small glances, the eye contact and the soft tones of voices that went on between Stef and Lena. She felt the tension between the two and it bothered her, it bothered her that there was still some sort of connection between them. She wanted to be the only person Lena loved and the only person that love her back. She didn't like it at all but, Lena had always assured her that she was never getting back with Stef and she had nothing to worry about. So, she tried not to do so. Worry about it. She went back to sit on the couch. The couch where all of this started.

" _I'm sorry, I shouldn't have… I mean…." Monte started. Lena and her had both come to the school on a Saturday to finish some work. When monte was done with hers, she went over to Lena's room only to find her still busy typing away on her laptop. She looked beautiful, her hair in a messy bun, reading glasses on the top of her nose and her bottom lip trapped between her teeth as she concentrated on her work._

 _Monte had to admit to herself that ever since she first saw Lena something inside her has started stirring. As far as he knew, she was straight, very straight but, something about Lena made her unsure. Over the past couple of months, she had started really falling for her. Hard. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before, not ever with her ex-husband._

" _You're still not done?" Monte said, making Lena jump a little at the sudden sound of her voice._

" _Oh, yes. I'm done with the Budget supplies, now I'm just doing some extra work." She answered._

" _Why, you don't want to enjoy your weekend?" with your wife… she thought it but she didn't say it. She walked over to Lena's desk and sat on the edge of it, right next to Lena's laptop, making the curly haired woman look at her._

" _I… I actually rather be here, everything at home is so hectic at the moment." Lena said, the look on her face showed clear exhaustion._

" _what's wrong?" She got off the desk and guided Lena to the couch and sat down next to her._

 _Lena took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. "It's nothing, I'm just tiered. All of the kids are just such… teenagers, they're getting themselves in so much trouble and my wife…" she stopped, trying to keep her tears at bay._

" _You can tell me. It's okay" Monte sympathetically smiled at her as she moved much closer to Lena than necessary and took her hand in her lap._

" _I just feel like I'm never good enough. The kids are really being such… teenage and it's driving me nuts. On top of all of that Stef seems to make it her job to make all the important decisions on her own. The communication between the two of us is fading and I don't know how to fix it." Lena realized she was dumping all of her problems on her boss and she saw the look on her face and was suddenly starting to feel a little ashamed._

" _I'm sorry, I'm just dumping all of my crap on you like this…" Lena started again. Tucking a string of hair that had fallen from her bun back behind her ear. Tears started freely streaming down her face now._

 _Monte couldn't help herself. She brought her hand to Lena's face and wiped away Lena's tears. She kept her hand on her cheek and said, "You're an amazing, beautiful woman, Lena. It's okay to feel down sometimes." All she wanted right now was for Lana to feel better._

 _Their eyes made contact ad something happened._

 _Monte was the first to lean in, parting her lips slightly. Her heart was beating fast and her breaths became shorter. The fact that Lena was so close to her was enough to make her core tingle. She felt Lena's breath on her face and she decided to wait until Lena gave her any type of permission to lean in further._

 _Lena knew it was wrong, she was married for God's sake but, right now, with Monte so close to her she couldn't resist. She leaned in closer and their lips met. Monte's lips felt so full and soft against her own, her scent intoxicating her brain. She felt Monte's lips opening slightly and her tongue swipe across her bottom lip. Lena brought her hands to rest on Monte's hips and deepened the kiss. Their tongues swirling around each other slowly. It wasn't until Lena heard monte moan a little that she pulled away. She still had her hands on Monte's hips and their faces were still only inches away._

" _We can't do this." She said, not sounding very convicted of her own words. A pleading look in her eyes, pleading for monte to tell her that she was right and they couldn't continue._

 _Monte didn't care for her words and leaned in again, connecting their lips again, this time the kiss was more intense, more urgent. Monte felt Lena's hands roam squeeze her hips and then she felt herself being pulled on top of Lena's body. God, it felt so good to have Lena under her, kissing her and holding her. Just the thought alone made Monte moan into the kiss._

 _Lena's hands slowly made their way up to cup Monte's full breasts, squeezing them through the material of her shirt and the bra that was underneath it. Monte bucked against Lena at the sensation and let out a sensual sigh. She needed to feel more of Lena's hands on her. She brought her hands to the buttons of her shirt and quickly started to undo them, not breaking the kiss._

 _Lena's head was intoxicated with all kinds of emotions. For the past few weeks she had started to feel closer to Monte, she thought they were becoming really good friends. Sure, monte was a very good looking woman, and she had an amazing character, she was definitely Lena's 'type' and of course, she had noticed the lingering touches and little flirtatious looks Monte had been giving her but, she always pushed it to the back of her mind. Monte was straight and She was married anyways._

 _Married._

 _Lena suddenly pulled back from the kiss._

" _Wait, Monte. Stop. Please stop." She said. As good at is felt, it was wrong. She gently pushed Monte off her, avoiding to make any eye contact with her. She abruptly got up from the couch and walked back to her desk. She started packing her purse, her hands shaking. What had she done? What was that? Why did she not stop earlier? Why did she touch Monte like that? Why did she enjoy it so much?_

 _Without saying another word, Lena walked out of the office. Leaving monte with her half-unbuttoned shirt ad tousled hair alone in the room._

" _Jesus FUCKING Christ" monte huffed out as she gave the coffee table in front of her a little kick out of frustration. What did she think? She was going to have a hot steamy affair with her VERY married vice principle? Was she delusional? The woman had five children for God's sake. She felt so stupid. Stupid for kissing Lena, stupid for wanting her and very stupid to be falling for her._

 _She grabbed her purse and decided to go straight home and sleep for the rest of the day, dreaming of what could have happened if Lena didn't stop her._

 _Sunday went by and it was another school day. And today was the day that Lena and monte had to present their Budget plan for the next year to the board. Meaning they would have to sit together, discussing their final findings before showing it._

 _Lena pulled up to the parking lot, seeing that Monte's car was already parked in its reserved spot next to hers. She swallowed hard as she pulled up to her spot, all the kids quickly got out of the car to hang with their friends before the school bel rang. Lena hadn't told Stef about the kiss, she was scared of the outcome and quite frankly she just didn't want to upset her wife._

 _She knew had felt something when she kissed monte, something she hadn't felt in forever with Stef. She hated to admit that after the kiss her panties had been soaked. It made her stomach want to turn just thinking about it. Touching another woman and being touched by another woman. What she had done was cheating on Stef. Cheating on her wife with her boss._

 _She got out of the car and slammed her door closed a little harder than she intended. She walked to her office slower than usual, knowing Monte would be there. When she arrived, she took a deep breath of air before opening the door._

 _Monte was sitting on the couch. The same couch they had been intensely kissing two days earlier. She was so caught up in her thoughts, typing away on her phone that she didn't even hear Lena opening the door._

 _Lena faked a cough before walking inside the office, she saw Monte jump a little at the sound of the cough._

" _Hi… Lena." She said awkwardly, getting up from the couch and grabbing her files off the coffee table._

 _Lena put her bag down at her desk and sat down, "Good morning, Monte." She said politely, avoiding eye contact again._

 _Monte went to stand next to her desk, "I'm sorry about the kiss, Lena. I really am."_

 _Lena smiled at her, not wanting this to become any more awkward than it already was. "It's fine, I'm sorry too. Let's just forget about it."_

 _Monte smiled back and sat next to Lena to work on the last parts of the budget plan, they acted like nothing had happened and continued their day as they always did. After the school day was over monte couldn't wait to get home but, before she left she needed to use the bathroom. She walked to the teacher's toilet at the end of the hall. She was stopped dead in her tracks when she walked inside and found Lena there at the sink, with a tissue, probably fixing her make-up or something._

" _Oh, I didn't know you were still here." Monte said, not sure if she should just use the toilet or get out of the bathroom._

 _The look on Lena's face was only describable as uncomfortable, "Uh, I was just getting on my way actually."_

 _Lena decided to just take her purse and leave the bathroom. The bathroom was very small, only build for one person at a time. Lena had to brush her body against Monte's to get passed her. As he did, she could feel Monte's hot breath on her neck, she stopped. Her body pressed against Monte's and their chests touching with every breath they took._

 _ ***Warning SMUT ahead***_

 _Monte looked into Lena's eyes only to find her starting back at her, with nothing but pure lust. She couldn't help herself, she grasped the back of Lena's neck and pulled her down in another hot kiss. Lena's hands flew to grab two hands full of Monte's ass before traveling upwards to cup her face, earning a soft sigh from the shorter woman against her mouth, "Oh, God."_

 _This time it was Lena who started to unbutton her shirt and throwing it aside. Monte reached behind Lena to undo her bra, wanting to see Lena's breasts. The bra fell to the floor and Monte let out a needy moan when Lena's breasts came into vision._

" _Fuck" Monte breathed before leaning forward and taking one of Lena's hard nipples in her warm mouth. Swirling the stiff nub with her tongue._

" _Monte… Don't stop." Lena arched her back in an attempt to get more of her breast in Monte's mouth. Lena's dingers shook as she bulled her body back, only to pull off Monte's shirt over her head. She made work of Monte's bra too and now they were both topless, kissing each other in the teacher's bathroom. Lena pulled Monte's skirt upward, just enough for her to get a peek at her white lace panties._

 _One of Lena's long legs moved in between Monte's, she pushed forward until her knee was directly on her core over her panties. Lena could feel the dampness against Her knee and began to rock up and down against Monte. She didn't think about Stef and how this would hurt her at the moment, too concentrated on Monte._

" _Fuck, Lena. That feels so damn good." Monte purred in Lena's ear causing the Curly haired woman to lean her Knee harder against Monte's pussy. Monte felt like she was in heaven, Lena's breast in her face and her knee against her hot core._

" _Yeah, you like that?" Lena husked._

 _The sound of Monte's moans echoed through the small bathroom, landing I Lena's ears, Turning her on even more. She started tweaking Monte's nipples with her thumbs, wanting nothing more than hear Monte cum._

 _The younger woman couldn't control herself anymore, the sensation of Lena thrusting against her body and her hands on her breasts was enough to drive her crazy._

 _"Look at me," Lena whispered. "Don't take your eyes off my eyes. Not for a fucking moment… look at me when you cum, Monte." Monte did as she was ordered, she bit her lip and looked into Lena's beautiful eyes. Those eyes that she had found herself lost in on so many occasions before. Lena replaced her knee with one of her hands and started to play with Monte's clit while two fingers made their way inside of her, making the younger woman cry out. She could feel Monte's walls starting to clench around her fingers._

 _Suddenly, Monte's left hand leaned against the wall to steady herself. She followed Lena's command and looked into her eyes as her orgasm took over her body. Sobbing with sexual delight, the eye contact was broken as Monte fell forward and wrapped her hands around Lena as she kissed her._

 _ ***End of SMUT***_

 _Silence._

 _Lena's eyes were focused on herself in the bathroom mirror as she held a post orgasmic Monte in her arms. What did she just do?_

 _Slowly, Monte regained herself. That was the most powerful orgasm she had ever experienced in her life. This wasn't JUST an orgasm… it was one filled with affection and trust. Now she knew it for sure, she was in love with Lena. Hopelessly._

 _In the next week, the two women kept seeing each other after school. They both knew that it was wrong but they couldn't help it. Lena would go home after, and act like nothing happened. She couldn't bring it to her heart to tell her wife about Monte, it would break her. She loved Stef more than anything, Stef was her rock, her hero, her wife. They had lost that spark that was there in the beginning but, there was still so much love, affection and even sex appeal between them. But all this just wasn't enough to keep Lena away from cheating on her with Monte for some reason._

 _Breaking things off with Monte had become something that Lena didn't even want to consider anymore. She had started falling for her, as ashamed as she felt to admit it to herself, she felt better since she started having sex with monte. She believed that it wasn't just the amazing sex, it was Monte. Monte was the person she wanted Stef to be, the person Stef USED TO BE before things started to become a slur. She was in love with both woman and she didn't know how she was going to._

 _Monte on the other hand knew exactly what she wanted to happen. She wanted Lena to tell Stef about the affair, they were in love and there was no stopping that. Lena had told her many times that she had children to consider and that telling Stef wouldn't be easy and she needed allot of time before she would even consider that. So, Monte decided that she should start dating someone else but Lena too, someone who could distract her mind from Lena when Lena was at home, happy, with her family. Someone to fill that gap Lena left when she went to her own house after school._

 _She had met Jenna through an online dating site. After a few dates, Monte found out that Jenna was Stef's best friend and that the two knew each other since high school. Monte knew that it was very risky to date another person that was close to Stef, close to Lena's family. Despite that she decided that if Lena could be with Stef while having an affair with her, she could date Jenna while having an affair with Lena too. Lena sure was furious about it at first, she knew that the relationship between Monte and Jenna would increase the risks of Stef finding out._

 _And she did._

 _Find out._

In the two days that week left until the kids would sleep over, Lena and Monte tried to make the house ready for the kids. They went grocery shopping ad bought all of their favorite snacks and they pre- ordered pizza and burgers.

"Mom, she said it was the third house on the left, I think we just passed it…" Callie said.

Stef had insisted on driving the kids to Monte's house, mainly because she was just curious but, she had told Monte and Lena that she just wanted to check out the neighborhood for safety reasons and wanted to know where to be in case of an emergency with one of the kids.

"Oh, no wait, there it is; number 402!" Jude said pointing at a rather big house.

Stef turned her steering wheel as she checked out the house, it was huge, there were allot if trees and other plants in the front yard, no wonder Lena wanted to come and live here, this was just her style. He pulled up to the driveway and parked.

Before the children could even get out of the car, the wooden front door opened. Lena came out of the house with a big smile on her face. She was wearing a bordeaux colored summer dress and her was up in a half bun. The kids al had their own backpack filled with a few clothes and essentials, except for Marianna, she needed to. They got out of the car and walked over to their mom who was waiting on with her arms extended to hug them.

Stef watched as Lena signed for the children to go inside before wrapping her arms around herself and walking towards Stef's car. Stef opened her car door and got out before leaning against the frame of her car.

"Hey, Stef." Lena said.

"Lena, you look gorgeous." Stef said as she looked at Lena up and down.

Lena didn't know what to say back so she just smiled at the compliment and continued by saying, "You don't have anything to worry about, I'll take good care of them..." She had noticed the worried look in Stef's eyes when the kids walked inside the house.

Stef shifted a little, "I know…" she started, "I guess I'm just a little stressed lately. It makes me worry about everything even more."

"Are you taking depression pills?" Lena asked, abruptly. She had been thinking about what Callie had told her in the car on their way to Marianna's performance and she needed to know if Stef was okay.

Stef's face wet pale, "How do you know that?"

Lena gave her a look that said; Really? You're asking me that? "The kids aren't blind, Stef. They see that something is wrong with you, they hate seeing you like this." Lena said. She was worried about her, the fact that she was with someone else now didn't mean se didn't care for Stef anymore. She did. Still care. Maybe even a little too much.

"I'm just..." _I miss you_ Stef couldn't finish her sentence, what she wanted to say didn't make any sense and Lena didn't need to know. Lena was now happy with Monte and Stef felt like Lena had long forgotten her. She didn't want to make things award for herself. She didn't want to seem hopelessly in love with Lena but, she still was. She loved Lena since the day she met her and she was sure this feeling would never shrink, nothing Lena could to would make Stef stop loving her.

Lena stepped closer to her soon to be ex-wife. "Please talk to me, Stef." She looked at her with pleading eyes. She loved Stef, and she wanted her to be okay. The fact that she was dating Monte didn't change that she still wanted the best for her.

"I'm depressed, I've been depressed ever since you left, Lena… And I know you're with monte now and I've accepted that but, I just miss you so much around the house." Stef's eyes started to water.

Lena couldn't handle seeing Stef cry like this. She stepped in closer and wrapped her arms around the blonde woman wo did the same. They stood there. Together. Holding each other. The embrace was filled with nothing but love.

Lena tried to fill her nostrils with as much of Stef's sweet scent as possible. Standing there with Stef's face buried in her neck was enough to make her knees weak. Lena had missed this. Stef.

Stef held on to Lena as tight as possible, wanting the familiar feeling to last. A feeling she had to miss out on for the last six mons, since their separation. A feeling that was now reserved for Monte.

Neither of them let go until they heard a small voice behind them, "I'm sorry…I don't want to interrupt anything here but, Lena I think the kids are waiting for you." Monte called, Her eyes and the tone in her voice practically spitting fire at Stef. She was not afraid of Stef anymore, especially not since they were on HER property.

Monte had walked down the stairs when she heard Lena open the front door. She came down the stairs and saw all the kids standing in her hallway. Her heart started beating faster, they were here, they were actually here. They all still stood looking at her awkwardly, none of them even saying hello to her after she greeted them. She noticed the front door was still open and it looked like the kids were waiting in the hall for Lena to come inside. She walked passed them, feeling their eyes burn into her and them judging her.

When she had made her way passed them, she walked outside to find her girlfriend in a deep embrace with Stef. Her blood started to boil, Stef had managed to worm her way into Lena's life again. Why? Why couldn't she just accept the fact that Lena was happier here? The past six months had been so peaceful and felt so perfect for Monte but, after Lena met Stef at Marianna's performance Mote started to feel threatened by Stef again.

She couldn't let Lena fall in Stef's trap. She couldn't lose Lena to Stef, not again.

She was going to make SURE that that would never happen.

 **Okay I know the ending kind of sucked but, I will make up for it in the next chapter. In the next chapter allot of drama happens through the weekend. PLEASE leave a review about what you think and if you have any requests! :D**


	4. Fighting

**Hello! This chapter isn't going to be very long, it has no smut or flashbacks and it's allot of information to take in at once so please read carefully. Before you start reading, please remember that my first language isn't English it's Dutch and the grammar and spelling is very hard for me to remember... PLEASE LEAVE A REVEW! Happy reading!**

None of the kids had actually spoken more than two or three words to Monte yet, since Stef dropped them off the day before. Marianna was the one who had the biggest attitude towards her mother's new girlfriend. She would roll her eyes when Monte would speak to Lena, and when Monte tried to talk to her or any of the other kids she would bluntly interrupt and start a random conversation. She wouldn't leave her mom's side just so that monte didn't have a chance to be close to Lena. She had even insisted on Lena sleeping next to her and Callie in one of the guestrooms in order to keep Monte as far away from her as possible. She had also decided to not eat anything in Monte's house. She had brought her own sandwiches and some snacks. Lena noticed and tried to get her to eat something but without much success.

Brandon, being the oldest, had the most mature attitude towards the situation. He understood that allot of families go through separations like this and that even though it was tough, they had to try and make the best of it. He wasn't thrilled by the whole situation but, he knew that there had to be a way to make this work for all of them. Sleeping over at his mother's new house with her new girlfriend could be the first step to a more civilized relationship between both of his moms.

The others tried to just avoided talking to Monte or even looking at her. When Monte did talk to them or ask them anything they would give short, one or two word answers. They would act like she wasn't even there.

They only agreed to staying the weekend because they all missed the feeling of being in one house with Lena. Their life was so different since the separation, everything was turned upside down. Being with her this weekend would be good for all of them.

A few days before Lena moved out, she sat all of the kids down to tell them and explain to them what was going on. Ofcourse they had already heard most of what was going on during the loud fights she had with Stef, but she wanted them to know what she felt and she wanted to hear what they thought. All of them were heartbroken and angry but she was sure that after some time, they would understand and forgive her. She was heartbroken too, leaving Stef was the hardest thing she ever did, she would see the kids in school but, Stef… She wouldn't see Stef that often at all and no matter how angry she was, it broke her heart. After a few weeks, Marianna was the first one to start talking to her again, then the rest followed slowly. They all forgave her but they never forgot what she had done and they didn't accept monte into their lives.

Stef was hardly ever home with them because she had decided to work double shifts, she needed to get away from the house, away from all those memories of the happy life she used to have with Lena. When she was home during the weeks, she would spend most of her time in her bedroom, resting. It was clearly visible to the kids that she missed Lena terribly, they knew she was struggling to get used to the new situation but even now, six months later, she was still a wreck without her wife. The children tried all kind of things to make her feel better and cheer her up and she always acted like it helped but, they could see a sadness that was still nestled inside of Stef.

Six months went by and everyone was still trying to find their 'new normal'. After some encouragement of Brandon, all of the kids agreed that staying over at Monte's house would maybe ease some of the tension and awkwardness.

After Stef had dropped them off on Friday, Lena had private talks with all of them, asking them how they were doing, how they were adjusting to this new situation and if they needed anything. They ate pizza for dinner and played board games. Saturday at breakfast Monte had prepared her famous toast, all of the kids, except for Marianna, tried it. The rest of the day was spend having a movie marathon on the sofa with snacks and soda.

It was now 5 PM and everyone was in the Livingroom watching a horror movie, Brandon, Marianna and their mom were on the sofa and the rest of the kids were sitting or lying down on pillows on the ground. Monte was seated in the chair next to the soda.

"She's so stupid, why doesn't she just take his knife from him while he's on the ground?!" Marianna hollered at the television, her eyes roller and she let out an arrogant little grunt.

"Shhh, Marianna, some of us are trying to watch the movie here…" Brandon said as he threw a single piece of popcorn at his younger sister who was sitting at the other end of the sofa, leaning against their mother.

Lena scrunched her face at Brandon in a playful way and pulled Marianna closer to her. She was happy to have her kids with her in the same house as her again, it had been so long since they were all curled up on the couch together, watching a movie. The energy in the room was calm and simple, it was all that she wanted, it was what she was used too. It was her… normal.

All that was missing was Stef, Lena thought to herself. Stef. She remembered the feeling of the blonde's arms wrapped around her the day before, when they hugged. Her earthy smell, the way her long hair felt against Lena's skin and how her breath grazed her neck. Oh, how she loved that feeling, she could never get enough of it. Lena tried to shake the thought of Stef out of her mind and tried to concentrate on the movie. _'Why am I even thinking about her like this? I'm happy with Monte, I'm in love with Monte!'_ Lena reassured to herself.

She looked over to Monte who was sitting on the cozy chair, she had covered herself with a think brown blanket and was completely focused on the television. She was beautiful, her long smooth brown hair fell next to her face like a waterfall. Her lips were full and had the richest color of pink, her eyes that were focused on the movie looked even more bright as the light from the television lit them up. Her character was sweet and selfless… she was smart and her voice was soft when she spoke. Yes, Lena knew for sure she was in love with monte, all of her.

"Oh… yeah, she's definitely head now." Jude said when the woman in the movie tripped over some random object and the killer came closer. He reached in the bowl in front of him to grab another hand full of paprika chips but, it turned out to be empty.

"MOMMA, Jesus ate all of the paprika chips!" he whined as he turned around to show Lena the empty bowl.

Jesus turned around too, a shocked look on his face, "No I didn't! you are most of them!" He said, trying to sound as truthful as possible.

Jude flashed him an annoyed look. "You know that' the only flavor I like, Jesus! Uhg!"

The two went back and forward arguing about who ate all of the chips. Lena paused the movie, earning irritated groans from Callie, Brandon and Marianna who were really focused on the movie.

"Okay, let me run to the store for you really quick, Bubba." She said before starting the movie again. She kissed the top of Marianna's head before moving to get u off the sofa. She walked over to the chair where Monte was sitting and kneeled next to it.

Lena stroked Monte's hair, "Do you mind watching them for a few minutes while I go get some more snacks, baby?" she asked.

Monte looked at her and smiled, "Go ahead, babe." She leaned down and quickly pecked Lena on the lips, the kids were so focused on the movie that they didn't notice.

"Anyone else want anything?" Lena asked, knowing all of the kids would start yelling what they wanted she added, "ONE at a time please."

"Maltezers." Brandon said, quickly followed by Callie saying "Some sour candy, please!". Lena grabbed a pen and some paper and started making a list.

Jude thought for a minute and said, "Can you get the chips with the orange packaging, momma?". Lena smiled and wrote it on her list. She loved how Jude always knew exactly what he wanted, even the smallest details.

"Can you buy me some vanilla ice cream and chocolate chip cookies… Oh, and if you have time some red vines!" Jesus said, looking at his mom with a hopeful look on his face, already knowing what she was going to say.

"Vanilla ice cream and red vines, yes, chocolate chip cookies, no. You know that much sugar gives you nightmares, and I'm not getting up at 4 am in the morning, Jesus!" Lena said laughing gently, "You want anything, baby?" She added.

Marianna was just about to answer when monte said, "No, babe, I'm good… thank you."

Lena saw that Marianna was going to answer too, so she asked, "What do you want me to get you, baby girl?" She started stroking Marianna's hair.

Marianna was getting a little hungry but, when she heard Monte answer, her sassy mode kicked in again. She gave Lena an uninterested look and said that she didn't want anything. Lena tried to get her to pick something to snack on but, the young Latina kept refusing. Lena gave up and left to go to the store, which wasn't more than 15 minutes away from Monte's house.

Everyone went back to watching the movie, which was almost at an end.

Monte looked over at the kids, they were all so focused on the movie, the looked so sweet. She wanted to have a bond with them, she wanted to be able to have conversations with them. The weekend was partly supposed to ease the relationship between Monte and the kids but until now, not much had changed. If Lena's kids didn't accept her, she was afraid that Lena would never be able to fully give herself to her. Monte loved Lena's kids, no matter how mean or arrogant they were towards her. They were part of Lena and that was enough to make Monte love them. As much as she knew that it was very selfish of her, she couldn't help but wish they were hers. That they were her children, hers and Lena's. It was a silly thought but Monte couldn't help but wonder what things would be like if that was the reality.

Suddenly Monte was pulled out of her daydream by Callie's voice; "Jude, give it back!"

The movie hand ended and the children were now debating on what movie to watch next. Jude wanted to watch the sequel to the previous movie they just watched while the others wanted to lighten the mood by watching a comedy movie. Jude had taken the remote control of the blue ray player and refused to give it back.

"No, it's only logical to watch part too now! What are you, scarred of a scary movie?" Jude said to his oldest sister.

"No, we're not scarred! We just want to watch a comedy movie… give Jesus us the remote!" Marianna said, sitting on the edge of the sofa to reach out he arm for Jude to give he the remote.

Jude still didn't want to hand the remote over and all the other teenagers started arguing back and forward with him.

Monte didn't know if she should step in or just let them argue. She decided to do what Lena would do, "Jude, please… Let's just watch one comedy movie, then we'll watch part two of the other movie, okay?"

All of the kids stopped talking and looked at monte and then back at Jude.

Jude didn't know whether to obey Monte or to just ignore her. he didn't like her and she wasn't his mother so technically she didn't have to listen to her at all. Then again, they were in her house and all the others wanted to watch the stupid comedy movie anyways. He handed the remote over to Brandon and went to sit back down on the pillow in front of the television. Brandon put in the comedy DVD and started it.

"Oh, so now we're all taking orders from this bitch?!" Marianna suddenly yelled. She was already very agitated by the fact that she had to spend the whole weekend in Monte's house and had to share her mother whit her. Now she wanted to act like she was the boss of them, who did Monte think she was?

Brandon quickly said, "Marianna, don't be so rude, besides… didn't you want to watch this movie too?!"

Marianna got up from the sofa and groaned loudly, "What is wrong with you Brandon? Can't you see that she's trying to win us over! Did you forget that she literally fucked her way into our lives and made our parents get a divorce?"

Monte was getting angry at this point. She had invited the kids into her house to make Lena happy but, she was not about to accept language like that being thrown at her by a 15-year-old. She didn't care if Marianna was Lena's favorite.

"Marianna…" She started but was loudly interrupted by a very angry Marianna.

"WHAT? What do you want from us? You want to be our cool new stepmom? Huh? Do you want us to call you Mommy? Stop trying to force yourself into our lives! We don't like you, we HATE you and we HATE that our mom is with you!" With that Marianna grabbed her phone and stormed out of the living room

Silence. Everyone in the room looked at Monte.

Monte sighed loudly and rubbed her hand on her cheek to calm herself down. "Okay, you guys just watch the movie… I'm gonna get Marianna." She said, her voice sounded unamused.

"I'll come with you." Jesus offered and he started to get up.

"No, please stay here... just, can all of you, please stay in the house… Please." Her voice sounded desperate and it let no space open for debating or arguments. She made her way outside and looked around for Marianna, she wasn't to be found anywhere near the house or in the street. Monte was starting to get a little scared, where could she be? What if n took her?

Right at that moment Monte saw Lena's car pull up in the driveway, she hoped that Marianna was walking down the street and Lena had seen her and drove her back to the house. When she saw Lena get out of the car with a brown paper bag full of snacks and a questioning look on her face, the hope of that being the case was gone.

Lena walked over to Monte and stroked her cheek, she saw the upset look on Monte's face and wanted to know what caused it. "What's wrong, baby?" she asked.

"Marianna stormed out of the house, and I- I can't find her, I don't know where she went. Lena… I'm so, so sorry!" Monte started sobbing slightly.

"O god..." Lena was getting a bit worried, "why did she storm out of the house?" She asked again.

Lena looked around once more to look if she could see Marianna anywhere but without success. She then told monte to come inside with her. Lena asked all the kids if they had any idea where Marianna could be but they didn't know. Lena didn't see any other option but to call Stef and go search for Marianna.

Lena was very worried about Marianna but tried not to show it, it was going to get dark outside soon and she didn't want her daughter alone out there at night. She took her phone and typed in that number she knew by heart, Stef's.

A groggy "Lena?" sounded on the other end of the line.

"Stef, Uhm… listen..." Lena explained what had gone on. Stef could hear the desperation in her wife's voice and told her to stay calm and that she was on her way there.

Monte kept apologizing to Lena, she felt like it was her fault that Marianna left. If she would have just let the kids figure out by their own what movie to watch, none of this would have happened. Lena kept assuring her that it wasn't her fault and that Marianna was a little dramatic sometimes. She told Monte that Marianna was a very wise girl and that she was probably safe, wherever she was.

A few minutes later, Lena heard Stef's car pull up in the driveway. She and Monte both went to the front door to open it. Stef got out of her car. She was wearing a black yoga legging and an oversized dark green sweater, her hair was tied up in a messy bun and she was wearing her night glasses.

Lena momentarily thought about how gorgeous she looked but, quickly shook the though and focused on finding their daughter.

Stef saw Lena standing at the front door, the look on her face was a classic one. It was the face Lena made when she was really worried about something but she tried to hide it.

"Hey Lena." Stef said, her hand brushing over Lena's arm, comforting her. Then she saw Monte standing behind Lena.

A halfhearted; "Hi." was shared between the two before Monte suggested they all went inside. She led them to the kitchen after Stef greeted the children. The teenagers were very surprised to see the three women in one room together without any yelling or screaming going on.

Stef suggested that one of them would have to go out and search for Mariana, one should go around in the neighborhood, asking around if anyone has seen her and the other one should stay in the house with the kids.

"I'll drive around looking for her…" Monte offered before leaving the kitchen.

Stef and Lena were now alone in the kitchen. They sat next to each other. Close. they both felt the tension that was going on between them.

"Are you okay?" Stef asked.

"I'm fine, I just… it's gonna get dark soon and I'm scared. What if we don't find her, Stef?"

Stef sighed, not wanting to think about what could happen if they didn't find her soon.

"Are-are you alright, Stef?" Lena asked. Stef was always the one who was worried about her. She always put Lena's wellbeing over her own and she sometimes forgot to take care of her own. Lena wanted to know if everything was going okay with stef.

"I miss you… Love" Stef said, she tried not to show too much emotion when saying it but she wasn't doing a very good job.

Lena's breathing stopped for a few seconds before continuing, not wanting to answer. Scarred of what might come out.

Stef stared at her wife's hand, they were on the kitchen table her long fingers tapping nervously on the firm wood. She watched as Lena's breasts heaved with every breath she took. She noticed everything about Lena, every little thing. Every little perfect thing. Because that is what she was, perfect. Stef couldn't help but silence the movement of Lena's fingers on the table by putting her own hand atop of hers.

Lena looked up at Stef, whose face was now really close to her. She inhaled deeply and clenched her free hand tightly, fighting the urge to touch Stef's face. She couldn't stop herself from leaning forward and connecting their foreheads.

The tension between them was at its peak, they could both feel every breath the other took in their very core. Stef put her hand on the side of Lena's face and closed her eyes. She leaned in a little more, and a little more. Their lips almost touching before Lena abruptly pulled back a little, they were still dangerously close to each other but, Lena knew that she couldn't do this. She couldn't do this to Monte, and not to herself either. She was in love with monte. Whatever romantic feeling she still had for Stef and whatever sexual tension there was between them, it was over now. No matter how much she wanted Stef, it wouldn't be fair to Monte and she didn't want to give Stef false hope. They were getting a divorce and that was that.

"I can't do that, Stef." She said softly.

"I know, Love" Stef answered.

At that moment, Monte re- entered the kitchen to tell the other women that she was leaving to search for Marianna. She saw it. She saw her girlfriend and Stef, very close to each other. Their foreheads touching. Their hands together. The tension between them was too much for Monte to look at. She turned around and walked out of the front door and started her car.

Inside of the house, Stef had decided to search around in the neighborhood while Lena stayed at home and watched the kids and check id Marianna would maybe just come back to the house on her own. Stef went out and started asking people standard police questions that she used when she was searching for someone.

Monte was near Anchor beach, hoping to find Marianna there, maybe sitting by the water to clear her head. When she was just going to get out of her car and search the beach she as stopped by the ringing of her phone. It was Lena, she told her that Stef heard from a neighbor who is also a cabdriver that she took a cab to a nearby mall. Monte knew exactly where Marianna could be.

She drove to the Seaview mall and went down to the parking lot. She saw a group of older teen boys leaning against a wall. She was about to drive past it but then she saw a pair of pale, short legs between those of the boys.

Marianna's.

Monte drove over to the group and stopped her car right next to them.

"Marianna! Is this where you've been all this time? We've been looking all over for you!" Monte quickly undid her seatbelt and got out of the car. She saw a cigarette between Marianna's fingers and her eyes grew big.

Marianna saw her mother's girlfriend intensely staring at the cigarettes in her hand. _'Who does she think she is? Just because she's my mom's girlfriend doesn't make her the boss of me, we're not in school.'_ Marianna thought to herself. All she wanted right now was to express towards monte just how she felt about her. She put the cigarette between her lips and took a deep drag, then she exhaled the smoke right in Monte's face.

Monte waved away the smoke, "Get in the car, young lady." She said as calm as possible, trying really hard not to lose her temper.

One of the boys in the group let out a low whistle and said; "Damn Mari, you better go before your mom gets more pissed."

The young Latina rolled her eyes at Monte and scoffed, looking her straight in the eyes, "She is not my mom, she's my mom's little girlfriend." Her voice was full of sass, wanting nothing more than Monte to cringe at what she was saying. She couldn't believe that Monte actually had the guts to find her and tell her what to do. Why didn't her moms come and find her? Why did this bitch have to come here and act like she was the fun-police or something?

Monte was done listening to Mariana's nonsense and now it was her turn to roll her eyes,

"Let's go, Marianna…I don't have time for this." She said as she grabbed Marianna's arm and started pulling her towards the car.

Marianna suddenly got a flash of anger over her, she shook herself from Monte's not so firm grasp and with all her power pushed her two ands against Monte's shoulders, making the older woman stumble backwards. Monte was just in time to stable herself.

"I can walk by myself." Marianna groaned before flashing a sympathetic smile to her group of friends and walking to the other side of the car to get inside of it, slamming the door behind her.

Monte made her way in the car again and sighed deeply with her eyes closed to calm herself down before reaching to buckle her seatbelt. She started driving and didn't even look over at Marianna for a second, almost as if she wasn't there. She realized that no matter what she did, Marianna would never give her a chance, so why even try? She kept her eyes focused on the road in front of her.

When they reached a red light, she took out her pone and texted Lena that she had found Marianna, so she didn't have to worry about anything. Lena texted her back, thanking her and telling her that she loved her.

Marianna had calmed down after a few minutes. She felt the defeated attitude radiate off Monte and it kind of made her feel bad about herself. Ofcourse she didn't like monte, she was the reason her moms broke up, she was the reason her mom moved out and her other mom was now alone! Then again… Monte also made Lena happy, she wasn't mean to her or her siblings and she always tried to nice to them. Marianna didn't want to admit it but, it was clear that this was going to be a long-term thing and after the fights that her moms had it was also very clear that they weren't getting back together. Being rude and mean to Monte wasn't going to fix her moms marriage, it wasn't going to make Lena come back home and it sure didn't make anyone feel better.

The smallest voice escaped Marianna's lips as she spoke, "Monte?"

She kept her eyes focused on her own hands that were in her lap, not wanting to look at the older woman. Not wanting to see whatever reaction she was going to receive.

For a minute, Monte questioned if she actually heard Marianna say her name. She knew she did but, she couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, Marianna?" She said. She saw Marianna nervously fumble with the fabric of her skirt in the corner of her eye.

"When I was little, I was a real momma's baby. I would cry my eyes out when she had to leave for work and I would bounce around her until bedtime when she got home…" Marianna paused, thinking back at those days before continuing "My point is, I was always so… happy with the way my family was, I felt safe and loved. I never thought anything would change the way things were but, then you came along and my mom fell in love with you and she left us. I guess I'm… I don't know… scared that momma is gonna eventually love you more than she loves us… It's just a matter of time." By now tears were rolling down Marianna's cheeks.

Monte heard the sincere tone in Marianna's voice. she heard the pain and the truthfulness. All of the kids had given her the cold stare when she walked by in the school hallway but, Marianna was always the only one who made remarks and snared mean comments at her. She never expected the girl to ever open up about her feelings like this towards her. Marianna showed her vulnerable side, she showed that she was hurt instead of just angry at Monte.

After Marianna was done talking, Monte decided to park the car next to a small churro stand on the side of the street. She remembered Lena telling her about Marianna's love for the sweet snack so, she thought they would maybe help her feel a little better.

"You want some churro's?" Monte said, smiling at Marianna.

Marianna finally looked up at Monte and nodded her head slightly. Starving herself at Monte's house wasn't the best way to rebel against her and it had made her very hungry. Monte got out of the car and ordered two portions of churros for them. She ordered a portion without cinnamon or sugar for herself and one with extra Chocolate for Marianna. She got back to the car and drove a few blocks further to an emptier street. She parked the car again and put the radio on, searching for a channel with relaxing music.

"Here you go." She said as she handed Marianna her bag of churros.

"Thank you." Marianna answered.

For a minute or two they sat in silence. Eating their churros and listening to the soft music in from the radio.

Suddenly, Monte spoke, "I'm really sorry about the way you feel, Marianna. I really, really love your mom and her kids are a big part of her so that means that I love all of you guys too… even if you don't like me. I want you to know that I would never want to keep your mom away from you."

Hesitantly Monte put a hand on Marianna's cheek ad tucked a stand of hair behind her ear. Marianna looked up at Monte and smiled.

Monte continued, "Your mom loves her kids more than she loves anyone else in the world okay? You really don't have to worry about that. I'm not trying to steal your mother away from you…" She didn't really know where she was going with her speech but in this moment, "Listen, I don't want to be your enemy, Marianna … would it really be that bad if you and I went along a little better?"

Marianna hesitated a little before answering. She didn't want to suddenly become best friends with Monte, she still didn't like her a whole lot but, if she continued to be mean and rude to her, the whole situation would definitely not get better from it.

Marianna smiled at her, "Yeah but, can we try to… maybe take baby steps with this?"

Monte answered with a firm nod, she understood what the teenager meant. She still had to get used to this new person in her life, it wouldn't be easy accepting the fact that her mom was now with someone else so, Marianna wanted to take things slow, to find her new normal.

They finished their churros and then made their way back to Monte's home. Marianna changed the radio channel and then turned up the volume of the radio, bopping her head to the beat of the music. Monte looked over at her, this could be the start to a more comfortable and relaxed relationship between Monte and Lena's kids.

Once they arrived home, Monte noticed that Stef's car was still parked in front of it. She was irritated by it, especially after what she saw in the kitchen before she left the house. She had been so focused on finding Marianna that she didn't really give much thought to it until this moment...

 **Ooookay, that was it for this short chapter! Thank you for reading and I'll upload soon! Leave a review and tell me what you think of it or if you have any requests! :-)**


	5. Moving

**Hey guys, I was really into typing this chapter so I uploaded it fast HAHA. IT'S A LOOONG CHAPTER! There will be ALLOT happening so please read carefully! My first language is not English so please help me out by pointing out annoying grammatical errors or weird typos that make the story hard to read! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW with any comments, or request that you have for this story! I'll try to put all of your requests in here if I can.**

 **tfrye123: Thank you for your Review! I was in the middle of writing this chapter when I saw your comment about the co-parenting… that's what I intended this Chapter to be all about! What are you… a psychic?! I think you will like this chapter. I put some Callie and Stef interaction (sort of) in here especially for you as well! :-)**

 **To the guest who asked if Lena and Stef ate getting together in this story: You just wait and see… my mind is a crazy place… all sorts of things might happen!**

"You're grounded, Marianna… end of story." Stef said, determent about her decision. She understood that her daughter was angry at Monte when she left the house but, it was dangerous and everyone had been worried.

Marianna's mouth fell open, "MOM! It's weekend and I went to the mall! I always go to the mall on the weekends." She couldn't believe that her mom was punishing her for being angry at someone that she didn't like in the first place.

"Maybe we don't have to punish her, Stef… She's safe and sound and she won't do it again, right Marianna?" Lena stepped in. She thought it would be a little too harsh to ground their daughter just for getting angry and going to the mall.

Stef looked over at Lena with disbelief in her eyes. She knew that Lena had a soft spot for Marianna but, what she did was not acceptable and she needed to know the consequences of doing things like that.

"Lena, I just told her that she is getting grounded, don't argue with me on this. She's grounded and that's that." Stef said.

At that moment, Monte stepped into the hallway where Stef, Lena and their daughter were. "Is everything okay here?" She asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. The only thing on her mind right now was the way she saw Lena and Stef embracing each other at the car the day before and a few hours ago, in her kitchen. It was obvious that Stef was still in love with Lena, Monte could see it in her eyes every time she saw Stef look at her. She didn't want Lena to be alone with her soon to be ex-wife too much and have fall into Stef's obvious trap. Monte fought to make Lena hers and she will fight again to keep her if she had to, she was the love of her life and Monte wasn't about to lose her over an old flame.

"Mom wants to ground me!" Marianna said, wanting to see if Monte was on her side or not.

"But she's not going to, because I'm your mother too and I say that you don't need a punishment…" Lena said with a 'as a matter of fact' tone in her voice. Looking right at Stef, almost daring her to argue with her.

Stef felt a familiar feeling, arguing with Lena over what punishment to give their children had become a normal thing when they were still together. The teenagers would get in so much trouble over the years that making up punishments for them was almost a daily task for the two mothers. She missed it. She missed all of it.

Before Stef could react to what Lena had said Monte began speaking, "I think that she doesn't really need a punishment. I mean She was just hanging around at the mall, she was safe, her boyfriend was there and she and I even… had a nice talk. Grounding her seems a little over the top."

Lena's eyes shifted to Stef's face, she looked furious. Her face was red with anger and her breaths were short and deep. Her jaw was clenched and her fingers were fidgeting with each other out of frustration. Lena knew that Stef absolutely did not appreciate Monte's opinion about how to raise their children. She told Marianna to go back to the living room where the other kids were now watching another movie. Marianna had noticed the pissed look on Stef's face when Monte talked and she didn't hesitate to leave the hallway as fast as she got the chance. She hoped she hadn't caused another argument between her moms now that they were just starting to get along a little better after all these months.

As soon as Marianna left the hallway, Stef's head turned to look at Monte with a sadistic smile on her face. She let out a small laugh. _'Oh, the ways I could hurt you right now, Monte...'_ She thought to herself. Her gaze shifted to Lena, waiting for her to say something to her girlfriend.

Lena felt awkward, Stef was Marianna's mother but then again, Monte had a really good point. Lena knew that parenting their children was hers and Stef's job so she didn't want Monte to start helping with decision-making. She loved monte but Stef was Marianna's mother. The only problem was, how could she say that out loud without sounding mean to monte?

When Monte saw the awkwardness on Lena's face and the angry look on Stef's she realized what was wrong, "I'm sorry if I overstepped here, I didn't mean to mix myself in you guys parenting Marianna... I was just giving my opinion." She looked at Stef with apologizing eyes. No matter how much she hated Stef, she was Marianna's mother and it wasn't her place to interfere and she understood that.

The blonde sighed and then tried to calm herself down a little, "It's okay… This used to happen all the time with mike and Brandon…" She started, knowing what reaction this would earn from Lena.

Lena stopped her, "No, Brandon is Mike's son, Stef. That's different. Monte is NOT Marianna's mother." Lena wanted there to be clear boundaries when it came to parenting her children. She loved monte allot but, raising them was the job of her and Stef. She realized that what she had said might have hurt Monte's feelings "I'm sorry, baby… I didn't mean to sound mean towards you." She said.

Monte felt it. The harsh words penetrate her soul, but, she knew that what Lena said was true, she wasn't Marianna's mother… Stef was and she always would be. She decided to just shake it off and tried to not let it get to her. "It's okay, you're right, I'm not." Her voice sounding nonchalant.

"You know what, Lena? I think I'm just gonna agree with you and un-ground her." Stef said suddenly, she didn't want to argue anymore, especially not with Monte's nose down their business. This one little this was not going to ruin her new 'friendship' with Lena. They talked for a little bit about what would happen next, Stef and Lena decided that it would be enough punishment to give Marianna some extra chores around the house for the next week. Stef went to the living room to say goodbye to the kids and left Monte's house again.

The rest of the night was spend watching three more movies before the kids all started to get tired and wanted to go to bed. Lena told Marianna and Callie that she would be there shortly but to her surprise, Marianna told her that she could just sleep in her own bedroom is she wanted.

After the teenagers went to bed and Lena was done saying goodnight to all of them, she went downstairs to join her girlfriend on the sofa. She curled up to Monte and wrapped her arms around her. She knew this day had been very stressful for her and was grateful that she kept calm like she did.

"You and Mariana seem to be on very good terms… What did you guys talk about when you drove home from the mall?" She had noticed that Marianna was now the one speaking to monte more than all the other kids, it made her very happy to see that her youngest daughter was finally starting to open up to Monte but, she wanted to know how Monte got her that far.

Monte smiled, "Actually, she started talking to me first… she told me that she is a real momma's baby" Monte smiled before continuing "And that she's just scared of the change in her life. She doesn't want to lose you."

"Oh, that's so silly of her… She will never lose me, I love her allot and she knows it." Lena said.

Monte shifted on the sofa to get Lena closer to her, "That's what I said and then she told me that she wants to take it slow with getting to know me and everything. She's a really smart young lady… You should be really proud of her." She said.

"I am, I really am." Lena said with the widest grin on her face.

"One more thing, baby?" Monte asked in a more serious tone. She shifted again, this time it was to sit up straight next to Lena.

Lena nodded and waited for monte to continue talking.

"Is there any connection going on with you and Stef?" She paused before adding, "Please be honest... I won't get angry, babe." She wanted to hear the truth from Lena.

The curly haired woman's facial expression changed completely. She didn't know where the question came from. Monte knew that Lena was in love with her, she LEFT Stef for her, why would she ask something like that.

Lena had to be honest to herself, she did indeed have some feelings for Stef, very strong ones even. But, after six months her feelings for monte kept growing and growing to the point where turning back to Stef didn't even cross her mind anymore. Sure, there was a strong connection between them, they had been together for so long and they knew EVERYTHING about each other. It would be a miracle if there weren't still feelings between them. Lena was in love with monte for sure, there was no doubt about that but, Stef would always have a place in her heart. At this point in time Lena would do all she could to keep her feelings for Stef under control.

"I- there will always be some kind of connection between Stef and I, baby. We have five children together, we had a whole life build up, it would be crazy if there was nothing there. I feel allot for her because of that." Lena said.

She saw the look on Monte's face and then continued, "But, I chose you, didn't I? I chose you because I love you, Monte. You and I were meant to be together. Sure, Stef and I have a history but that doesn't mean we will fall back into each other's arms. I can keep myself under control, Monte. When I look at you I see someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with, someone who I can't live without anymore. I really, really love you, Monte. I know that we started out in a not so ideal situation but, I want you to know that you can trust me."

At this point, Monte had gotten closer to Lena and had cuddled up to her again. She heard the sincerity in her girlfriend's voice and she was thankful to her for telling her the truth. She felt silly for overthinking the whole situation. Lena was hers and Stef was no threat to their relationship anymore.

They cuddled like that for a few more minutes before heading to bed, holding each other until they both fell asleep.

The next morning everyone woke up a little later than normal. The kids came downstairs and noticed that their mom and Monte hadn't woken up yet. Jude suggested that they would make breakfast before their mom woke up to surprise her. They made pancakes, scrambled eggs and sweet toast.

"Maybe we should make them some fresh juice too!" Marianna said when she saw the bag of oranges on the counter.

"Them? Marianna since when are Monte's best friend? Ever since yesterday you have been acting really nice to her… what happened?" Jesus asked her.

All the other kids looked at Marianna, waiting for an answer.

Marianna rolled her eyes, "Maybe she isn't that bad. I know momma cheated on mom with her but… We forgave momma, why can't we forgive her too? She hasn't been mean to us or anything, right? We keep on giving her shit and she keeps on takin it… it's not fair."

The others looked at her, she had a good point. Monte wasn't being mean to them and she seemed to make their mom happy. They had given up the hope that their parents would rekindle their relationship a long time ago, why should they keep grudges against Monte?

They all started looking at each other and slowly nodded their heads. Marianna was right, if they wanted to adjust to his new situation, they had to give monte a fair chance. Callie smiled and walked over to the Oranges to start on the juice. They made up two plates and put them on two trays. One for their Mom and one for Monte. They walked up the stairs and knocked on Monte and Lena's bedroom door.

Monte was the first one to wake up from the sound of the knocking.

"Lena, wake up, darling." She said, shaking Lena a little.

Leana moaned as she stretched her arms above her head, "Good morning, Babe." She purred. Then she heard a knock on the bedroom door. "Come in…" She said as she sat up straight in the king-sized bed.

They both watched as the door opened and to their surprise, all of the children came into the room. Marianna, followed by Brandon, behind Brandon was Jude with a breakfast tray in his hands. Jude looked clumsy, trying to balance the tray. Callie was behind Jude and as last Jesus came in with another tray.

"Good morning, my babies!" Lena said. All of them walked over to the bed and sat down on Lena's side of it.

The teenagers all said good morning to their mom and then Jude was the first to cheerfully say good morning to Monte too, followed by the others.

"Good morning, Kids." Monte said. Her voice trembled a little, she wasn't expecting Lena's kids to ever be this cheerful to her. Lena looked at her kids and smiled, she knew them well and she knew that they probably talked to each other about how to act towards Monte. She was more than thrilled to see that they were being nice to her.

Jesus walked over to Monte's bed and Handed her the breakfast tray. "We made you guys some breakfast" He said. Jude presented the tray he was holding to Lena.

"Oh, my babies. Thank you. That's so sweet of you!" Lena said with a cracked voice. She couldn't believe that her children had actually made Monte breakfast also. Monte herself was also in a state of shock, she looked at Lena then at the kids and then at the very tasty looking food.

"Don't worry, Monte… We didn't do anything to yours." Marianna joked, everyone laughed.

Callie started talking, "We- We thought that we should make you breakfast as a peace offering to you, Monte."

Brandon continued, "Yeah, we haven't been very nice to you and we're sorry about that."

Lena's eyes started to tear up, her children were so mature and sweet toward Monte and she knew they were trying to be as nice as possible, just because of her.

"Thank you, this…" Monte stopped, gathering her emotions before continuing, "This is really, very sweet of you. Thank you so much." She said, at this moment a few tears had escaped her eyes and were rolling down her face.

It was then that the kids realized how she must have felt during all of this. Callie was the first one to walk over to Montes side of the bed and sat down next to her, smiling as she stole a piece of the scrambled eggs off Monte's plate. Jesus sat down at Monte's side of the bed too.

Their mom and Monte ate their breakfast in bed surrounded by the teenagers. The rest of the Saturday was spend playing board games and watching two more movies. During the day, the kids asked Monte all kinds of questions, they were interested in knowing where she came from and what she was like. At about 9 PM it was time for the kids to go home. Lena drove them to their old house and dropped them off. Stef wasn't home from her shift yet so the two women didn't see each other.

Lena was actually kind of relieved that Stef wasn't home yet. She knew that what happened or well… almost happened in that kitchen could have ruined her whole relationship with monte in seconds. She didn't want to face Stef because, she didn't want to feel. She didn't want to feel her heart starting to beat faster, she didn't want to feel her knees weaken when she heard Stef's voice and she didn't want to feel attracted to her soon to be ex-wife. The truth was, she did feel, and she needed to suppress it as good as she could.

She drove off and went back home, to Monte.

When Stef came home she found all of her children in their rooms. She asked them how their weekend was, they all answered that they had fun and that they wanted to do it again soon. It was getting late and Stef told the kids to go to sleep. She thought about what the kids had told her.

They had a great time and they wanted to sleepover gain soon. What did this mean? They liked Monte now? Stef wasn't especially happy with that part, Monte stole the love of her life and now she was trying to palm in her children too? What did everyone see in that lowlife, nasty, wife stealing bitch?

Stef was pulled from her thoughts by a saint sound coming from downstairs. She thought it was probably one of the kids but, just to be sure she took her gun and slowly and softly made her way out of her bedroom down the stairs, careful not to make a sound.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and heard Marianna's voice. She was talking to someone. Stef thought she was probably on her phone talking to one of her friends, she was just about to casually walk into the living room until she heard another voice. it didn't sound like it was coming from a phone. Stef quickly stepped into the living room and to her surprise she saw Marianna, in her bra on the couch with her boyfriend nick.

Marianna's eyes grew big and she couldn't put her shirt back on faster, "Mom. Okay, don't get angry." She said.

Nick got up from the couch and apologized to Stef. "I'm so sorry misses Adams-Foster! I just came by to… get something that I forgot here last week…. And things just got a little out of hand."

Stef had an unamused look on her face. She couldn't believe that Marianna broke the 'no boys in the house after bedtime' rule. And Marianna was SHIRTLESS with that! It was 3 AM and nick claimed to come pick something up at this hour?

"At 3 AM?" Stef asked, waiting for the next excuse to come out of one of their mouths.

Marianna began speaking but Stef stopped her before she could even get her first word out, "Nick, can you please go home… NOW?"

Nick did as instructed by Stef, he said a fast goodbye to the both of them, before making his way out of the door quickly. Marianna looked at her mom, she knew that look all too well, she knew she was in big trouble.

Stef didn't have time to listen to Marianna's excuses or arguments, she spoke very clearly, "This time I do not care what Monna has to say, Marianna. You're grounded for three weeks. And I'm taking your phone too."

"Mom! You can't take my phone! I need it!" Marianna argued.

Stef couldn't be bothered to even take in consideration whatever argument Marianna had ready for her, "As long as you live under my roof, you are following my rules and you'll do as I say. Now hand over that phone, Marianna." She said with a tone in her voice that matched her stern look.

Marianna's look changed. She was starting to get enough of Stef's rules. "Well, I want to go live with Momma then!" She said.

"NO! No way, Marianna. You are staying right here. Now give me your phone and go upstairs." Stef said. She couldn't even think about having her little girl living in a different house than herself, especially with Monte. That was out of the question. Besides, she doubted that Marianna actually meant it.

"I mean it mom, I want to go live with Momma. I have the right to!" She said with a determined voice.

"No, you can't just leave the house whenever you're in trouble, Marianna. That's not how life works." Stef said calmly. She saw the determination in her daughter's eyes and she knew that she was serious about this. She tried to sound as calm as possible, not wanting to show Marianna that she was actually freaking out on the inside.

"Brandon could go and live with his dad, how is this any different?" Marianna continued with the same determination in her voice.

"Because…" Stef paused to think of an answer but she couldn't find a reasonable one.

"Because I'm adopted? Does that make a difference, mom?" Marianna bickered.

Stef couldn't believe Marianna was actually considering, pacing her stuff and moving in with Lena and Monte. She knew that Marianna was always secretly Lena's favorite and that they had a special bond but, she never expected something like this to happen. One weekend with Monte and Marianna wanted to move in with her.

Marianna rolled her eyes, "I'm moving out and I'm gonna live with Momma, you can't stop me, mom." She said as she handed over her phone to Stef and stomped her way up the stairs and into her bedroom.

Stef sat down on the couch and huffed. WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? She thought to herself. She knew Lena would be thrilled to take Marianna in, and if Marianna wanted to live with Lena, Stef knew that she couldn't stop it. She decided to go over to Lena's office at the school at lunchtime and talk about this with her.

The next morning Marianna acted like nothing happened. Stef asked her if he was serious about moving out and she answered with a very clear YES. She didn't sound angry or upset about what happened the night before, it sounded like she truly desired to live with Lena. It wasn't a sassy period or a rebellious teenager move. Marianna explained that she had been thinking about it for a while now. The only thing that held her back was the fact that she didn't like Monte. Now that that was out of the way she didn't see another argument not to go. It She also explained to Stef that it wasn't because she didn't love her enough to say, because she did. It was just that she missed Lena enough to go. Marianna said that she would of course come stay at Stef's house with the other kids every weekend.

It was hard for Stef to wrap her head around it but, she knew that if Marianna wanted to go live with her Momma there was nothing she could do. She told Marianna that she should wait and let her talk to Lena and Monte first. It was Monte's house and they couldn't just make a decision like that without asking Monte's permission first and Stef wanted very clear rules to be set if Marianna was actually going to live there.

When Stef dropped off the kids she decided that she couldn't wait until lunchtime to talk to Lena. She walked inside the building with her police uniform on. She walked through the familiar hallways to Lena's office, once again. She did her signature three knocks on the door before stepping inside. She didn't bother to wait until she heard Lena telling her to come in. Big mistake.

Stef walked inside the room to find Monte sitting on the edge of Lena's desk, with Lena standing between her legs, they weren't kissing but they were close to each other.

"Oh, Jesus." Stef said before covering her eyes and turning away. She had never seen Lena and Monte being…. Romantic in front of her. She wanted to throw up in her mouth just by the sight of it.

"Stef!" Lena said in surprise as she stepped away from Monte and straightened her clothes a little. Monte got off Lena's desk and did the same.

Stef didn't want to waste any time. And asked them to sit on the couch, she wanted to discuss something.

Lena sat down, Stef watched as her skirt hiked up her legs a little, exposing skin that hadn't seen in months. Looking at Lena's smooth legs was more than enough to take her mind to another planet. Stef couldn't help but stare a little, she was quickly pulled out of her daze by Monte joining them on the couch, sitting down sight next to Lena.

"I wanted to discuss something, or well… ask you something." Stef said.

Lena couldn't keep her eyes of Stef's body as she began speaking. Stef tended to use allot of body language while she spoke, making her breasts jiggle in the police uniform with every arm movement she made. Lena inhaled deeply before finally ripping her eyes away from the forbidden fruit that was Stef.

"Yeah, go on…" Monte encouraged Stef to tell them what she was going to ask, it must be very important is Stef came to the office this early.

Stef looked directly at Lena, not wanting to look at monte while she told them. In some way, she felt defeated by monte because Marianna wanted to move in with them. She didn't know why. "Uhm… Marianna came to me and she asked me…" She paused again… not knowing in what way to say it so she just continued, "She wants to come live with Lena." She spat out.

Lena's eyes grew big from enthusiasm. She didn't know what made Marianna decide this but she sure was very happy with it. "Really?" Lena asked.

Stef nodded, a half smile appearing on her face. She didn't like the fact that Marianna wanted to move in in one house with Monte but, she couldn't help but smile at Lena's reaction. A reaction of pure happiness.

"Babe?" Lena said questioningly to Monte.

Monte had the same wide grin on her face. She couldn't believe that one of Lena's kids would actually consider Living with her. A few days ago, Marianna didn't even want to talk to her and now she wants to live with her? It was amazing. And she was sure that her relationship with Lena would get so much stronger if Marianna moved in also.

Lena's grin faded slightly when she thought about what Stef must feel. She remembered how sad she was in the beginning when Brandon moved out.

"What do you think, Stef? Is it okay with you? Do you mind it at all?" Lena asked, putting a hand on Stef's knee in a comforting manner. She felt Stef tense up from her touch and she couldn't help but stroke her hand over Stef's knee a little longer than needed before pulling it away.

Stef got tears in her eyes. She tried very hard not to let them fall, "Of course I'm a little sad but, if she wants to go live with her Momma, she should. She said that she would stay with me on the weekends and she made it very clear that it isn't because she doesn't love me… it's because she really misses you and she just wants to be with you too." She said.

Lena send Marianna a text to come to her office. Marianna was a little shocked to see the three women waiting there for her. She sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch. They told her that they all agreed with her moving in with Monte and Lena but, she had to stay at Stef's every weekend and she had to do the same chores that she did at Stef's house at Monte's too. The same rules would be held at Monte's house and Stef was still the one who made all the important decisions together with Lena and they would have daily contact about Marianna. When it came down to house rules Monte was allowed to decide for Marianna also since it was her house. would have to tell her siblings the news that night at dinner, herself and would have to start packing. Lena would pick her up in three days. The teenager was beyond exited to live in the same house as her Momma again.

The school bell rang and Marianna had to go to class and Monte had to present something to the board, leaving Lena and Stef alone in the office.

They started at each other for a minute before Stef scooted closer to Lena, placing her head on the taller woman's shoulder. Lena knew that this was hard for her and she understood what Stef was going through. She moved her head to kiss the top of Stef's head. she felt the water from Stef's tears hit her bare leg. She had to fight he urge to grab Stef's head, turn it, kiss her on her lips and tell her it was going to be okay. She knew she couldn't do that.

They sat like that for about 10 minutes. No talking. To moving. Just sitting. Together. Stef had to leave for work. She whipped her tears and they both laughed a little when Lena showed her the wet spots Stef's tears had left on her new shirt.

At dinner Marianna told everyone that she was moving out and at first nobody believed her until Stef confirmed it. None of them was very happy about it but they accepted it. They all knew that Marianna was a momma's baby and it was only logical that she would want to be with her. After dinner Marianna started packing her suitcases. She was a little sad that she was leaving Callie alone with all the boys but, she figured that Callie would see her at school every day and she could come sleep over whenever she wanted, Lena was her mother too!

Three months go by and Marianna is getting settled in her new routine at Monte and Lena's house.

"Marianna, come on, your mom is leaving in 15 minutes. What could possibly be taking you so long?" Monte asked at the other side of Marianna's bathroom door. Marianna finally had her own Bathroom for the first time in years and she used it to its full capacity. She has much more time to do her hair, make-up and nails in the morning.

"I'm almost done, I'm just gonna skip breakfast today!" Monte heard on the other side of the door. She smiled a little. It was nice having a teenager in the house. She felt like this was what it was like to be a mother. She was very careful not to overstep any of the boundaries that Stef had set but all and all, she was excited about Marianna living with them.

She went downstairs and found Lena bus trying to fix Marianna's lunch for the day while eating breakfast herself. Monte took over the work to let Lena eat her breakfast in peace.

"Marianna is almost done, Baby." Monte said.

"well, she better hurry up before we leave without her." Lena half joked.

"I'm already done, Momma…" She heard coming from the hallway. Marianna had a lot of time in the morning to get ready so she looked even more stunning than before every morning.

Marianna sat down at the breakfast table and quickly ate some cereal before checking what Monte was putting in her lunch bag. She started to form an actual bond with Monte. They went out together when Lena had to work overtime, they made dinner together and they found out that they both had a passion for math and would sometimes even challenge each other to something they called a 'brain match'.

Lena loved seeing Monte and Marianna together. She knew that Monte wasn't Marianna's mom but she could see that Marianna had allot of respect for Monte and they could get along great. She of course texted Stef every day to tell her all about Marianna's day and they would call often too. Sometimes after school, Marianna decided that she would have dinner at Stef's house. Lena would then pick her up after dinner.

The other kids came to sleep over allot too and they all got along great with monte too. Lena thought that they had finally accepted the fact that their moms were not together anymore and were starting to find a 'new normal'.

"Time to go!" Lena said enthusiastic, she was ready to start the day and see her other children at the school. Today Lena had to leave early because of a board meeting. Monte didn't have to join so she could stay at home for two more hours if she wanted.

"Wait momma, instead of going to school way to early, maybe I can just ride with Monte today." Marianna said. She was free on her first period and she didn't want to be at school for nothing when all of her friends were still at home.

Lena thought for a second, "Okay, sure. That okay with you, baby?" She asked monte.

Monte nodded her head, her mouth full from the bite she just took out of her waffles. She didn't mind driving Marianna to school at all.

"Oh, since you are going to that presentation after school, should I drive Marianna to Stef's for dinner?" Monte asked. She didn't want to say it out loud but, she loved the annoyed look on Stef's face every time she dropped Marianna off or came to pick her up wen Lena wasn't able to.

Lena left a few minutes later Lena left after kissing her girlfriend on the lips and hugging her daughter, leaving them alone in the house.

As soon as Monte heard Lena's car start, she walked over to the curtains to peek if she was actually driving away. She went to sit next to Marianna who was on her phone while eating her cereal.

"Marianna, can I ask you something, Pretty? She said. What she was about to ask required all of Marianna's attention so Monte gently put her hand over the teenager's phone to get her to look at her.

Marianna continued typing for a second, sending one last message before putting her phone on the table and looking at monte, "Yeah, what's up? Is it about mom?" She asked, curious about the serious tone she heard in Monte's voice. She saw Monte shift uncomfortably a little in the chair.

Monte paused a little, trying to find the right words to say what she wanted to say. She had been wanting to ask this for a while and she was really curious and also a little nervous about what the answer would be. "It's about your momma, and me… and all of you kids." She looked into Marianna's eyes, encouraging her to continue talking, "I wanted to ask you what you and the others would think if I asked your mom to… marry me."

Marianna's eyes grew wide, a little shocked by the sudden and unexpected question. What would she think if her mom married Monte? She liked monte, a lot, she was getting used to having her around and even liked seeing her with Lena now. Marianna knew that a marriage between Monte and her mom would change allot of thing and she wasn't sure if she was ready for even more change in her life right now. Everything was happening so fast around her but, would it really be such a big deal if her mom married Monte? If it would make her mom happy, then why should she object.

Monte saw the expression on Marianna's face change as she thought about what she was just asked, "It's okay if you don't want to, Marianna. I was just wondering what you would think of it…if you want me to wait a little longer until you and all your siblings are ready, I will." She said.

"No, it's not that I don't want to. It's just that I… am a little surprised by your question." Marianna said.

"Do you think I should ask your brothers and sister, or do you think I should wait?"

"I think you should of course ask them! I can see that you and mom are in love and I think all the others see it too when they come sleep over and when you two are together at school." Marianna smiled at Monte, "We want both of our parents to be happy and you make Momma happy…" she added.

Monte smiled back at her, she was relieved by Marianna's answer. The only thing that was still slightly bothering her was Stef. The divorce hadn't been finalized yet due to some minor legal issues and Lena was technically still married to Stef.

Stef had invited Lena and monte over for dinner multiple times and vice versa, Monte could always sense that… connection between Stef and Lena. The two had become 'friends' overt the last few months and they were no longer that awkward around each other. Of course, there was the tension between them and they both tried their best to keep their feelings for each other under control. They had agreed that they both still had feelings for each other but that they were better off as friends. Lena was with Monte now and she didn't want to hurt Monte like she had hurt Stef. She would never forgive herself for cheating on anyone again.

It bothered Monte to see them make intense eye contact and that they hugged longer than Monte saw necessary, they were just so… in sync with each other. Lena had assured her that she had nothing to worry about and she trusted Lena but, she couldn't help but sometimes feel a little agitated about this new found 'friendship' between the two women.

Things between Monte and Stef were better too, they talked to each other in a normal and civilized way to a certain extent. There was still a lot of tension between them and it was obvious that they didn't really enjoyed each other's company. They discussed that they would just accept each other as part of Lena's life and that was the only thing that made them act normally towards each other.

"Thank you, Marianna. I should go get ready for school too." Monte said. She stroked the top of Marianna's head and made her way upstairs.

About an hour and a half later, Monte's car pulled up to her reserved parking spot, next to Lena's. Marianna got out of the car and made her way to class.

Monte went to Lena's office only to find it locked, which meant that Lena was not in the school building. She wondered where her girlfriend could be, she hadn't texted her that she was leaving or anything. It was almost lunchtime and she was normally taking a break in her office around this time.

A few blocks removed from the school Lena used the spare key that was taped under the bench on the porch to make her way in Stef's house. She knew Stef was at work and all the kids were at the school. The day before Lena forgot her map with all kinds of important files and crucial school information at Stef's house, on the counter. She needed the files to continue a project that she was currently working on, she decided to drive over to the house and grab the file really quick.

She opened the door and was immediately embraced by the familiar vibe of the house. The family vibe. She placed her handbag on the ground in the hallway. She looked around on the counter, she couldn't find her file anywhere. She thought Stef must have put it in the dresser where she put all the opened mail. Lena opened the dresser and sighed, Stef hadn't maintained the mail and everything was un-organized.

She searched around for her file when something caught her eye. It was a pink envelope, it had the words 'For mom from Callie' written on it with a black marker. She looked around to see if she could be caught, even if she knew there was nobody else in the house. She knew it was extremely rude to peek through Stef's mail but when she saw that it was a letter from her daughter, she couldn't help but take a look.

 _Mom,_

 _I know that you and Momma are going through a hard time right now and I know that you're sad and hurting. I hope this doesn't make it worse. There is something I want to tell you and I wrote this letter because I'm too scared to say it to your face._

 _I'm pregnant. Please don't get angry at me, I know I screwed up… again and I'm really sorry. I don't want to keep it, I'm not ready to have a baby. I need to get it removed and I don't know how to go and do that by myself._

 _Please don't tell anyone._

 _I love you,_

 _Callie._

Right at that moment, Lena heard the front door open. She quickly gathered herself, relaxing her facial expression and putting the letter back where she found it, in case if it was one of the kids.

To her surprise, it was Stef. In her police uniform, with a brown paper bag in her hand, her lunch. She had already seen Lena's car in the driveway and figured that she probably came to pick up that file that she had found on the counter the other day.

"Hey, you came to get that file you left here?" Stef said, smiling at Lena before sitting down at the kitchen table to unpack her lunch.

Lena opened the dresser again and pulled out the letter she just read. She walked over to the kitchen table and threw the letter on it, making Stef jump at the sudden aggression, "What the HELL is this, Stefanie?" Lena scoffed.

A sigh escaped Stef's mouth, "Lena, she just didn't want me to tell anyone, I couldn't break her trust, Love." She understood why Lena was angry. Ever since Mariana moved in with Lena, Stef insisted on knowing EVERYTHING that was going on with her daughter and yet here she was… Keeping this huge secret about their daughter from Lena.

"When was this?" Lena asked, a stern look on her face.

Stef sighed again, she knew Lena wouldn't like the answer. "Three weeks ago, I'm so sorry for keeping it from you, Lena." Stef couldn't look Lena in the eyes, she didn't want to see the shock that she knew was in them.

Silence. Lena didn't say anything. She was upset. She was upset that Callie didn't trust her enough to tell he about the pregnancy. She was upset that Stef had kept this from her. Upset about everything. "You should have told me, Stef. I'm her mom too. Why didn't you tell me? Is it payback because Marianna came to live with me and Monte? Jealousy? Is that it?" She was starting to raise her voice.

Stef got up from her chair and stood with her face close to Lena's, so close that their noses were almost touching. The rage on her face was very visible, Lena knew it was a sensitive subject for Stef. Stef had hurt her by not telling her about Callie and now she wanted to do the same to her. Hurt her feelings.

"I'm NOT jealous of Monte Porter." The blonde plainly said, with no emotion in her voice.

Lena smiled a little. Ste tried to hide her emotions but, Lena knew her too well to see right through that the whole emotionless look on her face. She hated it. She hated that Stef acting all tough. She knew that she could break her with the slightest effort and that was just what she planned on doing. She was going to prove to Stef just how jealous she was of monte, even if she didn't want to admit it.

"No?" Lena purred, before sucking in her bottom lip, showing Stef a facial expression that screamed SEX. She brought her hand to rest on Stef's cheek while the other one rested just below Stef's ribs, on her waist.

Stef couldn't help but moan out loud at the just the face that Lena was making, it was making her forget why she was angry. Lena had flashed her that face many, many times before. It was the face she made in between the sheets. The expression that told Stef that she wanted her.

"Please kiss me, Lena." Stef rasped out. She hadn't felt Lena's lips on her for almost a year now. She craved the softness of them on her own.

Lena hesitated. Her goal with this was to teach Stef a lesson, not to actually get her to kiss her, but right now, in this very moment Stef looked incredibly hot in her uniform with her hair tied back and Lena found it harder and harder to resist every second. She moved in closer and closer. Then Monte crossed her mind for a second, and she instantly pulled back.

"Stef, we shouldn't." Lena abruptly took a step back and looked away from Stef, "I shouldn't have done that… touching you and looking at you like that. I'm sorry."

Just before Stef could answer her police radio beeped, "Attention Unit 7. We got a 10/23 and a 12/01 at Anchor beach charter school. S.W.A.T. team is on their way. Please report to the school asap."

Lena didn't know what all the police codes meant. She heard the name Anchor beach and she needed to know what was going on. The look on Stef's face already told her that something was very wrong.

"Lena, whatever you do, don't come near the school." Stef said. without any further explanation, she went out the front door and started her car before speeding away with her police sirens on.

Lena was dumbfounded. What was going on? What did those police codes mean? A S.W.A.T. team at the school? Did that mean there was someone with a weapon inside the school? The started to get worried, what if the kids were in danger? What if monte was in danger?

She grabbed her keys and her bag and got into her car, she needed to make sure that everyone she loved was safe. She got into her car and drove towards the school. She was waiting at a red light when she heard her phone ring in. her bag. It was a series of texts from Marianna.

 _-Momma, I'm scared._

 _-I'm in Monte's office with Monte and Jude. We're hiding in the wooden closet._

 _-He's in standing right outside the room, he's yelling at us._

 _-Please don't text back or call, he might hear my phone beeping._

 _-Momma, if something happens… we love you very much'_

Lena didn't even think anymore, all she did was hit the gas pedal. She needed to get to the school as fast as she could. Her children were in SERIOUS danger.

 **So, that was it for this chapter… I know, I know… ALLOT happened in this one and I ended it with a major cliffhanger. I wanted to continue but I feel like it would be too much if I made the chapter any longer. PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW with what you think of it and if you have any requests. Thank you for reading and I'll upload soon!**


	6. courage

**Hey guys, So I thought about it and I figured it would be rude to leave you guys with a cliffhanger like that. SOOO… I made another chapter. It's about half the length of all my other chapters but, it really is supposed to serve as a tiny… update. As always, please remember that my first language is not English, so if you find any really bad typo's please point them out for me! No smut in this chapter so it's safe to read all of it! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW if you have any requests or comments.**

 **To the asshole guest who keeps commenting at every chapter that they hate the story and that it's bullshit and blab bla bla... STOP READING IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT… I can handle criticism but it's kind of childish of you to keep on saying mean things just because you don't like the storyline… write your own story with a storyline that you do like instead on being mean if something doesn't go your way in mine… *sigh***

The only thing that flashed through Monte's mind was, _'I'm never going to see Lena again.'_ She held on to Marianna and Jude for dear life. The two teenagers were clamped to her sides, she could feel them tremble.

The sound of the chairs that she had stacked up against the door loudly fell to the floor as it was pushed open forcefully creating a loud back that made all three of them jump a little in the office closet. Monte hushed the two kids silently. She had to think of a plan fast, else all three of them would get hurt.

"I know there's someone in here, that door didn't barricade itself." the voice sounded angrily. They could hear him move around the office. They could hear him searching for them. They could hear his grunts of frustration. They could hear him coming closer to them.

All their hearts skipped a beat when the doors of the closet suddenly flew open.

"Marianna, come with me, now." He said. Surprisingly, his voice was calm. He had finally found her after searching the whole school for her. He reached out his hand to grab her by the arm and pull her out of the closet. Totally ignoring Jude and Monte who were in the closet with her

Marianna responded by wrapping her arms around Monte's waist even tighter, a strangled scream escaped her throat. She was too scared to even answer Nick.

Monte didn't know what to do. She had never been in a situation like this before and she was scared beyond disbelief. "I can't let her go with you… Please just let us go outside." She muttered, her voice shaking. She looked at the gun that he had clutched clumsily in his left hand. Monte knew she couldn't put Marianna in danger like that, she would never be able to forgive herself if something happened to one of Lena's kids because of her. No matter how much she wanted to go in panic mode, she couldn't. She had to make sure that Jude and Marianna were safe, that was her priority right now.

"Shut up, principal porter or I'll shoot you." He tried to sound as serious as possible. He just wanted Marianna to come with him, and at this point he wouldn't care to hurt someone to get her so far. He was agitated by the fact that Marianna was paying no attention to him and was just clamping up against the principle.

Marianna started sobbing. This was all her fault, she was the one who cheated on Nick, knowing what was going on with him at home. She should have been there for him and she just left him. Now he had snapped and he was dangerous to others too.

Jude looked up at Monte, searching for some kind of comfort in her eyes while tears were slowly starting to form in his. She stroked his hair and mouthed "It's gonna be okay." to him.

Monte had a plan, not a very good one but, it was the only one she could come up with at the moment. First, she had to get Jude out of here. She pretended to hug Jude to calm him down so she could whisper something in his ear. "When you go outside, search for a police officer and tell them where we are, okay? But please be quick."

She abruptly let go of him and turned her attention to Nick who was still trying to convince Marianna to come with him. She made sure to hold on to Marianna to get her to stay where she was.

She gathered all of her courage and spoke to Nick again. "Nick, PLEASE! At least let Jude go. He's very scared and he has nothing to do with all of this, right?"

Nick thought for a second and then answered, "Okay but, you have to leave too, let me be alone with Marianna." All he wanted was to be alone with Marianna and talk to her. He didn't understand why everything had to be so hard. He didn't understand why she wasn't talking to him.

"Please let Jude go, I can't leave Marianna alone." Monte said.

Nick kicked against the door of the closet and ordered all three of them to get out of it with a swing of his gun.

"Please nick, let them go…" Marianna pleaded with a shaky voice when she gathered enough courage to finally say something to Nick. She looked at him with the most pleading eyes.

Nick sighed and waved at Jude to get out of the room. The teenage boy looked at Marianna and Monte once more before quickly making his way out of the room, into the hallway. If he managed to get the principle out of the office also, he could finally be alone with Marianna. "I want you to leave too, principal. I NEED to be alone with Marianna." He said, hoping she would just leave them alone.

Monte went to stand in front of Marianna, protecting her with her own body. The rest of her plan was to keep Nick talking as long as possible until Jude send someone to help.

"Nick, put the gun down, before someone gets hurt, okay?" Monte tried. She saw that Nick didn't really know how to even hold the gun, let alone shoot one. If he kept on handling the gun in the careless way he was, he might shoot Marianna or Monte, by accident or intended.

Suddenly, a scream erupted from Nicks throat, "SHUT THE FUCK UP! Get out of here, you!" He pointed the gun at Monte. He looked at her with fire in his eyes, she was literally and figuratively standing between him and Marianna.

Behind monte, a terrified Marianna was clamping on to her from behind, silently begging her not to leave her alone with Nick, "Please don't leave me, Monte… Please." She whispered to the older woman. She didn't want to be alone with Nick. He was dangerous and he was angry at her for what she did. If monte left, he would most definitely hurt her. She had never been in a situation like this before and Monte was the only person she had to protect her in all of this.

Tears were starting to form in Monte's eyes now, she was careful to stay strong and not let them escape. "I can't leave you alone with Marianna, Nick." She said as she saw Nicks breathing beginning to speed up. He was starting to get angrier. "I can't leave you alone with her if you have that gun, Nick. If you put the gun on the floor and kick it to the wall, I can leave. Okay? Can you do that?" Monte continued.

The teenage boy scratched his head. His eyes were big and his face was read, he looked very distraught. It was clear that he was not mentally stable at the moment. He didn't know whether to trust monte or not. From what Marianna had told him about her a few months ago, he knew she could be very knifing and sneaky.

He decided not to take any chances and not to trust her, and quite frankly he was getting enough of her talking and whining. He pointed the gun at her and told her, "One last chance principal, GET OUT!"

For a second or two, Monte contemplated if she should actually leave the office and leave Marianna alone with Nick. The thought was quickly pushed to the back of her head when she felt Marianna starting to shake more violently behind her. No! She couldn't leave Marianna to her faith, alone in a room with a violent, confused and dangerous boy who had a gun. She loved Marianna and if it was one thing that she had learned in her life, it was that when you love someone, you do everything you can to protect them from getting harmed.

"I'm really sorry, Nick… I can't…" Monte was stopped mid-sentence by a loud BANG and a sudden pinch in her chest. She lost her balance and fell to the floor.

Everything went so fast.

It took monte a moment to realize that Nick had shot her. Suddenly the pinch in her chest got more and more painful until she didn't feel it anymore. She could feel herself starting to gasp for air, as her head began to feel lighter and lighter every second. Her vision began to blur and she felt her body going numb. In the distance, she could hear Marianna's voice _'Monte! Wake up, please stay awake, Monte!"_

The last thing on her mind was how happy she had felt a few minutes before the school alarm started to go off and she had to hide in the closet.

" _Why did monte ask us to come to her office?" Brandon asked Callie as they walked through the hallway on their way to the principal's office When they had made their way to the door of the office, they saw Jesus, Jude and Marianna already there._

" _Morning, guys!" Monte cheerfully hollered when she saw Brandon and Callie enter the room. She offered them a seat in one of the chairs across from her._

 _All of the kids were curious what was so important and o urgent that made her gather all of them in her office at lunchtime. Over the last few months they had all gotten along pretty well with Monte so it wasn't awkward or weird anymore to be near and around her. They all got used to Lena being with Monte and had all accepted the fact that their moms were getting a divorce soon._

" _This looks so serious..." Callie said nervously. She hoped they were not in any trouble._

 _Marianna looked at her sister. She of course already knew what Mote wanted to tell or rather ask them. She was very excited about it all and she was kind of proud of herself to not have told any of them yet. She was always bad with secrets but, this time she had actually kept one._

" _it kind of is…" Marianna said enthusiastic._

" _Yeah… so I have been thinking about this for a very long time and I thought that I'd get all of your opinions about this before I actually do it." Monte started. She was very nervous and she hoped that none of them would object. It would break her heart if any of them did but, she knew Lena would never say 'yes' if she wasn't sure that all of her children were on board with it._

" _Oh, must be VERY serious I you have to ask us first… I feel like a judge on X-factor." Jesus half laughed._

" _Shhhh, just listen, Jesus. This is important." Marianna said in an annoyed voice, rolling her eyes at her twin brother._

 _Monte gathered all of her courage before deciding to just say it, "It really is… =" She paused for a second before continuing, "I was wondering what all of you would think if I… If I asked your Momma to marry me." She sighed, asking it went easier than she thought it would._

 _A long silence swirled around in the room, nobody made a sound for almost a lull minute. Monte started to get butterflies in the pit of her stomach. Why aren't they saying anything? What now?_

 _Marianna looked at her siblings, encouraging them to talk and tell Monte what they thought about it. She already told Monte that she was okay with it and she hoped that the rest would do so too. The silence was killing her and she needed them to speak up now._

 _Slowly the four other teenagers looked at each other. The looks on their faces looked like they were still considering. Slowly they started nodding at each other, in approval._

" _I guess that wouldn't be a problem... right?" Jude said. He was the first one to answer. He looked at the others in search for them to agree with him._

 _Callie was the second one to say something. She thought about it and she didn't see any objections too. Their moms were getting a divorce and they had clearly explained that there was no way that Lena and Stef were getting back together. Stef was off her depression medication, which made it clear to Callie that she was happier. Monte made Lena happy and their moms happiness was most important to them. "Yeah… you make our Mom happy, and you guys love each other." She said, smiling at Monte._

 _Brandon and Jesus both nodded in agreeance with Their oldest sister._

" _Good… Because you guys are a very important part of this and I would never do anything like this without you guys approving of it... ever. And I want you to know that I really appreciate you accepting me. I know things have been hard but, I promise it will only get better." Monte said, tears had started to build in her eyes. Tears of happiness that is._

 _The bell rings. The kids left Monte's office and went to their classes. Marianna stayed because she had another free period and she didn't want to hang around campus all by herself. Especially not since what happened yesterday. She had broken up with nick after they had a fight and she had told him that she had lost her virginity to someone else. He had called her about an hour later to tell her that he would kill himself if he couldn't be with her. Eventually she had managed to talk him out of it but she was terrified that he would do it anyways. Marianna had asked Jesus if he had come to school that day and he confirmed but, he also told her that he had been acting weird. She hadn't seen him yet and she would rather just be in Monte's room to avoid him than alone on campus._

" _Marianna, can I show you something, Pretty? It's still a secret though..." Monte said. She had an exited look on her face. The same look she gave Marianna when Lena was away and they would sneak out and buy ice-cream before dinner._

 _Marianna walked over to her desk and sat down on the edge of it, "What is it?" She curiously asked._

 _Monte reached into her bag and pulled out a black velvet box. Marianna's eyes grew big. The older woman opened the box and inside of it was a ring. And not just a normal ring, a beautiful, classic, three stone diamond engagement ring. The middle stone which was a brilliant cut diamond was surrounded by two black opals on the side of it. Black opals were Lena's favorite gemstones. Monte had designed the ring herself and had it especially made for Lena._

 _Marianna's eyes lit up. "Oh, my goodness, Monte! Those are Black opals on the side! Aren't those like… SUPER expensive?" She said in total awe of the jewel. She took the box from Monte and looked at her for permission before trying the ring on her own finger._

 _At that moment, a knock on the door made Marianna quickly take off the ring and give it back to monte, who put it back into her bag. Jude came into the office again._

" _Marianna, I forgot my lunch at home and you have to lend me some money." He said._

 _Marianna flashed him a look that already told him that her answer was no, "Well, maybe starving for the rest of the day is just what you need to remind you to not forget your lunch at home, Jude." She teased._

" _Oh, come on! I'll do your chores this weekend!" He whined but Marianna still didn't budge._

 _Monte saw that Marianna was not going to give in so she reached into her bag and searched for her wallet._

 _Just as she pulled the wallet out of her bag, the school alarm sounded._

' _CODE BLUE, EVERYONE FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SCHOOL PERSONAL. CODE BLUE, EVERYONE FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SCHOOL PERSONAL.' the intercom sounded over and over again._

 _Monte quickly rushed to grab Jude and Marianna's backpack and her own handbag and threw it outside the office. Without even thinking she shut her office door and locked it. "Guys, get those chairs over here and help me stack them up against the door." She said._

" _What is a code blue?" Jude asked while carrying a chair over to the door and stacking it on top of the one Marianna just put down in front of it._

 _Before Monte could even answer, Marianna started explaining. "It's when someone had a bomb or weapon inside the school." She knew because she had done a paper on school safety a year ago, a she remembered all the codes._

 _When they had stacked all of the chairs in front of the door, Monte suggested they should hide in her file closet. And so, they did._

 **As I said, this was a very, very short chapter! AND I left you with an even BIGGER cliffhanger! MUAHAHAHAH! *evil stare* Thank you for reading and I'll update somewhere next week! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW as you see it motivates me to write more and update faster! :-)**


	7. Family

**Ok guys, here's the next chapter! I'm sorry for the long wait … I was already halfway through writing this chapter but then some idiot(s) broke into my house and stole my laptop. And after that I kind of lost my apatite to write for a while. Anyways I hope you enjoy this chapter. This will explain what happened to Monte after the shooting and it will tell you a little something about Monte's family! As always I want to tell you that English is NOT my first language and that may cause some grammatical errors…bear with me! Happy reading :D**

Lena got into the ambulance and she jumped a little at the loud sound of the heavy doors of the vehicle closing. Monte's eyes were staring around, hazily, drowsy and only half open. Lena knew that her girlfriend was still conscious and tried to encourage her to stay awake by talking to her. She saw Monte's mouth trying to say something back but no sound came out. Her breathing came out as if she was gargling. The wound on Monte's chest was literally pouring blood and the doctors in the ambulance were working hastily to reduce the bleeding.

Lena tried her hardest to keep her tears at bay. She needed to be strong, Monte didn't need her tears right now. What she needed was for her to tell her that she was going to be alright. Lena kept stroking her head and whispering to her as the ambulance speeded over the road. All that Lena wanted was for her baby to be alright.

A string of 'I love you's and 'You're going to be okay's escaped Lena's lips after the vehicle abruptly came to a halt and the doors flew open. Monte's gurney was pulled outside and into the hospital.

Lena followed the doctors that were pushing Monte's gurney until they rolled her into the operation room. A nurse asked her to wait in the waiting room until the doctor had more information about Monte's condition. The nurse guided her down towards the waiting area and asked her politely to wait for the doctor. Lena was numb, she couldn't believe that all of that happened in those few minutes that she went outside of the school building. She sat down and her mind started rambling. What if Monte wouldn't make it? Things were just starting to get more and more comfortable with their relationship now that the kids accepted her.

She sat and thought about what she had seen when she arrived at the school after she received Marianna's texts.

 _Lena arrived at the school and saw a small mass of parents, students and a whole bunch of police officers in front of it. She hastily made her way through the heap of people, searching for a familiar face that could tell her what was going on. She just hoped and prayed that everyone she loved was alright. In the crowd she recognized Callie, who was standing next to Brandon and Jesus._

" _My babies!" She called, making them all turn around. Their faces were serious and they all made their way over to her, to embrace her._

 _The curly haired woman's head was full of unanswered questions. Except for the text that she got from Marianna she had no clue what was going on, "What is going on? Is everyone okay? Where are Marianna and Jude? Where is Mom? Where is Monte?" She asked them, her voice thick with sincere concern._

 _Jesus was the first one to answer her questions. "We don't know, there was a code blue and everyone had to hide in their classrooms… Then a few minutes later we were guided outside by the SWAT team. Mom told us to get back and wait here."_

 _Lena tried to stay calm. She needed to show Stef the text message that she got from their daughter before it was too late to save her. She crossed the yellow and black colored police tape and in between the other police officers she saw the familiar half-long golden locks. Stef. Lena walked over to her and touched her shoulder to make her turn around to look at her._

 _Stef's eyes grew big. She had specifically told Lena to stay at the house, she was purposely disobeying her and putting herself in danger by doing so. "Lena! I told you to stay away from the school! Why can't you ever just listen to me…"_

 _Lena had no time to argue about anything right now and cut right trough Stef's lecturing. "Marianna send me this…" she pulled her phone from her pocket and showed her soon to be ex wife the text messages that she got from their daughter just a few minutes earlier. She saw Stef's expression visibly change as her eyes scanned the few sentences their daughter had written to her. Her face reddened, her nostrils flared a little and then suddenly she gave the phone back to Lena._

 _Without even thinking any further Stef started running towards the school. She reached for her gun and clutched it tightly in her hand as she kept on running. Two of her children were in serious danger, She needed to protect them at all costs. Behind her she heard the voice of Lena Yelling at her to come back but, the only things on her mind right now were those texts._

 _She ran through the empty school halls, towards where she knew Lena and Monte's offices were. Her gun in her hand ready to shoot. Her breathing was fast from the adrenaline rushing through her body. She almost reached the office when she was startled by another person that was running her way, it made her aim the gun. She quickly lowered her gun when she saw that it was Jude._

 _Jude's face was pale, and the look on it showed that he just had a traumatic experience. His heart was beating like a hammer in his chest. He put his hands in the air as soon as he saw that there was a gun pointed at him but lowered them quickly when he saw that it was Stef holding it._

" _Mom!" Jude sighed before wrapping his arms around her, "Marianna and Monte are in Monte's office. Nick is there too… He has a gun, Mom!", he started rambling._

" _Okay, Bubba! Listen… Keep Running to the front entrance of the school and go outside, okay?" She looked him in the eyes, searching for confirmation that he had understood her. He nodded and was about to answer when there was a loud BANG. A gunshot._

" _Jude, Run… and remember to keep your hands on your head when you walk outside." Stef told him before disappearing around the corner of the hallway where Monte's office was. When she reached the office she leaned her back against the side of the door to take a peek at what was going on inside. She first saw Nick with the gun still awkwardly pointed at Monte. Monte on the floor in front of her desk surrounded by a pool of blood starting from the pouring wound in her chest. Marianna was kneeled at Monte's side, tears streaming down her face as she tried her hardest to have Monte stay awake._

 _Then nick's voice sounded, "Come with me Marianna, we have to leave NOW!" He yelled, lowering the gun._

" _NO! Look at what you've done Nick!" Marianna yelled at him while gesturing him to look at all of the mess he had caused. The chairs that were scattered across the office, The police sirens that sounded outside the building, their principle clamping on to her life, the blood. Everything was because of Nick._

" _I…I…" Nick started not knowing exactly what to say to her._

 _Stef could see him starting to raise the gun again, this time not at where Monte and Marianna were but to his own head. For a second she thought about breaking protocol and letting the boy kill himself for what he's done but, She couldn't. She aimed her own gun at Nick's leg and pulled the trigger._

 _Marianna's scream seemed to be loud enough to overbear the ringing from the gunshot in Stef's ear. She quickly made her way over the fallen chairs that had been stacked up against the door earlier to make her way to nick and take the gun that he had dropped to the floor when she shot him. She then quickly made her way to Marianna and wrapped her arms around her as tight as she could and then focused on Monte. Trying to get her to stay awake. After what didn't even seem like a second after that the SWAT team barged in followed by medics from the ambulance. Marianna quickly grabbed Monte's bag with her as she walked out of the room. Stef took Marianna by the shoulders and guided her outside the building._

 _After the gunshots were heard outside, The police told everyone to get as far away from the school as they could but, Lena didn't move a muscle, she needed to see if everyone was alright. She needed to see that all of her loved ones were out of harm's way. The doors opened and Stef walked outside with Marianna on her arms. Marianna was crying and clutched on to her mother's side like a belt. Her white summer dress was covered in blood and so were her hands and chest._

 _Lena got up from ducking behind a police car and held her arms out for Marianna who ran to her and broke down in tears. Stef followed and they sandwiched Marianna in between them. Safe and sound. Soon after, the other kids all followed and everyone shared an embrace._

 _Lena looked up for a second and saw the doors to the school open once again. This time there was no group of students coming out. It was a gurney, on it was nick. He was sitting up straight and his hands were tied behind his back, he was rolled into an ambulance, accompanied by a police officer. Lena figured that the blood on Marianna must have come from Nick's wound._

 _Stef saw the look of relief on Lena's face and realized that she hadn't heard about Monte getting shot yet. She also figured out that it wouldn't be much longer before she would start asking where Monte was._

" _Lena…" Stef started._

 _Lena immediately noticed the serious look on her soon to be ex wife's face. Something was wrong._

 _Before Stef could start her explanation, the school door opened again, this time with allot more force than all the other times. Another gurney was rushed outside. Lena tried to see who was on it but the ambulance personal was in the way. She was a little confused. If Nick got shot, who was on the other gurney? Then she saw it, from the back as the gurney was loaded into the ambulance. The long, wavy, dark brown hair that she loved so much, she would recognize it anywhere._

" _MONTE!" Lena yelled, the panic and terror visible in her voice. She started rushing towards the ambulance. She was riding with Monte to the hospital, she needed to make sure that she was unthreatened._

Lena was pulled out of her thoughts by a female doctor walking her way. She got up from her chair and took a deep breath to brace herself for whatever news the doctor would give her. All the time that she had spend waiting in the waiting room she had been thinking about what had happened and what COULD happen if Monte didn't make it. She loved Monte so much, and she couldn't lose her. Not now, not ever.

"Family of Miss Porter?" The doctor asked looking Lena up and down before looking back down at her clipboard to go over the information one last time.

"I'm her partner… Her parents live in Texas" Lena said, and then she also realized that Monte's family didn't even know what was going on at all yet.

"Alright then… the bullet went through miss Porter's chest and went straight trough the side of her left lung. It missed her heart by a hair. She was very lucky and we were able to retrieve the bullet and close up the wound." The doctor said, her eyes still scanning her notes behind her glasses.

Lena let out a deep breath that she didn't even know she was holding in. She was relieved… until the doctor continued her speech.

"But… Because of the hole in her lung, Miss porter's brain was lacking oxygen for quite some time… on top of that she has allot of blood in the back of her brain, probably caused by hitting her head on the floor."

Lena went back to panicking. What did all of this even mean? First the doctor tells her that they removed the bullet and stitched Monte up and now she's telling her that there was a problem in a WHOLE other area of her body? HOW?

"What? What does that mean, doctor?" Lena stuttered, her breathing starting to quicken.

"Miss porter is in a coma due to the head trauma caused by the fall. There is a 50 percent chance that she will wake up within the next 24 hours but after that period has passed…" The doctor paused, worried about the terrified look on Lena's face. "If she doesn't wake up in the next 24 hours there is a 30 percent chance that she'll wake up within the next week and after that the chances of her waking up as slim to none." She added.

Lena was numb. she didn't know how to feel and she didn't know what to do. She just wished all of this never happened and things could go back to how they were. Monte didn't do anything to deserve this and Lena felt powerless due to it.

"Can I go see her?" Lena said, looking at the doctor with an empty look in her eyes.

The doctor told her Monte's room number and then went on to walk back in the direction she came from.

Lena took the stairs instead of the elevators, she didn't know why. Maybe she just needed time to absorb the news about Monte's condition. Maybe she needed to see Monte in the state she was going to be in. Maybe… She was scared, scared that this was the last time that she was going to be able to see Monte alive. She quickly shook that last thought out of her head and made her way to the floor she was told her girlfriend was on.

She searched for the room number and waited outside the door. Gathering herself. Bracing herself. Soaking up all of her courage. She was about to open the door up when she hear the voice of her youngest daughter sounding from behind her.

"Momma…" Marianna said.

Lena turned around. Marianna wasn't wearing the blood covered summer dress anymore. She was now wearing Jeans and what Lena recognized to be one of Monte's sweaters. Her hair was in a messy bun and her face looked tired.

"Hey baby. How did the interview go?" Lena asked. While she had been waiting in the waiting room, Stef texted her that Marianna had to give her statement at the station and that afterwards they would come to the hospital too.

Mariana answered, "It went okay... I guess... Mom drove me home and I showered and changed my clothes and…" Her story started trailing off as her eyes wandered to the door of the room, questioning. "Is Monte going to be okay, momma?" she asked. She didn't receive any information about Monte's status yet and she was anxious to know if she was doing all right.

Tears were starting to form in Lena's eyes. Seeing the look on Marianna had on her face made her envision how terrified Monte, Marianna and Jude all must have been before getting shot.

She presented the young Latina a weak smile, "She's… in a coma right now. There is a 50 percent chance that she will wake up in 24 hours… after that the percentage starts to drop every day."

Marianna bursted out in tears as she wrapped her arms around her mother. This was all her fault. She shouldn't have cheated on nick and now Monte was in a coma because of her slutty behavior. She felt disgusting.

"It's all my fault! I cheated on nick and he went crazy and he shot Monte! It's all my fault." She sobbed, her tears staining her mother's blouse.

"No, no, no… This isn't your fault. This is absolutely NOT your fault, baby." Lena started. "Nick is the one who shot Monte and he is the ONLY one at fault here. Nobody thinks that any of this is your fault… not me, not the doctors, not mom and not Monte." She continued as she held her daughter tightly.

In the back of her mind Marianna knew that it wasn't completely her fault but, she couldn't help but think that is she didn't cheat on Nick, Monte would be out of harm's way right now. She looked up at Lena and nodded slightly.

"Let's go inside, okay?" Lena offered as she placed her hand on the doorknob of the room.

They entered the room and were greeted by the smell of disinfectant and the only sound that was audible in the room was the beeping of the machines that Monte was hooked up to.

She looked like she was sleeping except for the fact that her breaths were coming out as wheezes. Her long hair was spread out across the white pillow and the grey hospital blanket was pulled up to her neck, covering any sight of the wound. For a minute it looked like her eyes were about to flutter open but it was only a reaction to the light in the room.

They both sat down on opposite sides of the bed next to Monte.

Lena breath stuttered when she tried to take a deep breath before letting out a sad, "Hey, Babe." She reached out and touched Monte's face. Oh, how she loved that face. Oh, how she would give anything to see those eyes open up.

"Please wake up soon, Baby… I need you." Lena said, holding back any tears. She needed to be strong. She continued talking to Monte, in the hope that she could hear her.

Marianna shifter on the bed, she wanted to make this better. She NEEDED to make this better. Then she got an idea. It was crazy and she tried shifting it to the back of her mind but, it was the only thing that she could think of right now to make thing better. Something that would maybe give Monte even more strength to wake up. Something to look forward too through all of this.

Marianna swallowed the lump in her troath as she looked at Monte. She pulled Monte's hand from under the blanket and held on to it as her other hand shakily reached for her back pocket.

"Mo- Momma?" She stuttered, making Lena stop talking to Monte and look at her.

"Yes, Love?" Lena looked at her with questioning eyes.

Marianna looked at the unconscious woman before them to gather strength. She never in a million years would have dreamed about doing anything like this.

"Uh… I don't know how to do this… I guess I should just start by saying that… Monte really loves you momma. And everyone can see that she makes you really happy and that you make her happy too. At first we all thought that she was just this mean villain who stole our mom away from us…. But, Love is something that you can't stop, no matter what. I realized that Monte isn't a big bully that broke our family apart, We will always be a family no matter who you or mom are with. Monte is an amazing woman, she's kind and smart and she truly cares about all of us. And… I love her." Marianna said, her heart was pounding in her chest. She had never said that she actually loved Monte before.

Lena leaned in and placed a kiss on Marianna's cheek. She was thrilled that Marianna was now completely opened up towards Monte and she hoped that Monte had somehow heard her say all of this.

" Me, Callie, Jesus, Brandon and Jude would all think that it would be great if you…" Marianna paused and got the small velvet box from her back pocket and opened it for her mother to see the ring, "We would love it if you would marry her." She let out a sigh.

Lena's eyes grew wide and her mouth was agape. She looked at Monte and then back at Marianna. She was in shock.

When Marianna saw the confusion on Lena's face, she started to explain, "Monte asked us if it was okay if she married you and we all agreed that it would be great. And after the shooting I got the ring out of her purse, I didn't want it to get lost or anything… are you angry?" she was scared that her mother could be angry about the fact that she didn't give Monte the chance to propose herself. But… maybe this was the only chance she had at proposing to Lena and Mariana felt like it was the right thing to do.

"Yes…" Lena spoke.

"Momma, I'm sorry I didn't mean to be rude or intrude in any of Monte's business I just…" Before Marianna could finish she sentence Lena interrupted her.

"No… I meant YES… Yes, I will marry her." Lena uttered, the look of shock on her face now replaced by a bittersweet one. She was overjoyed that Monte had asked the kids of it was alright for them to get married. And she was overjoyed that they had all said yes. And she was overjoyed that Marianna had the courage and the love inside of her to actually propose for Monte but, all of that was overshadowed by the fact that Monte was still in a coma.

Marianna smiled and placed the ring on her mother's finger before turning to an unresponsive Monte, "Congratulations on your engagement Monte." She said before placing a peck on her forehead.

Right at that moment there sounded a knock on the door and the female doctor from earlier walked inside. The light from the hallway that entered the room made it seem like Monte's eyes would flutter open again… but they didn't.

"I'm very sorry but, visiting hours are over… you can come back tomorrow. Stay strong, she looks like a fighter." The doctor spoke as she went and checked the machines while making notes on the clipboard. Lena kissed Monte's forehead one more time before making her way out of the room with Marianna and into the elevator downstairs.

In the waiting room where Lena had been sitting before the doctor came to her the rest of the family including Stef were sitting patiently. Lena sat down with them and explained Monte's situation. Al of them seemed genuinely worried about Monte's condition and the mood was think with sadness.

"I do.. however, have some good news trough all of this." Lena said, trying to cheer up the mood. She held up the ring but, before she could even speak Marianna already did.

"Momma and Monte are engaged!" Marianna hollered, she was so excited.

All of the kids faces lit up a little.

"Wow, really? Congrats Momma!" Callie was the first one to verbally respond.

"Yeah, I'm really happy for you!" Jesus followed as he took a closer look at the ring. Jude and Brandon also congratulated their mother with the engagement. All of the kids were visibly excited about the news and a discussion about what the wedding would be like quickly developed. Of course there was a chance that Monte wouldn't wake up but, they tried not considering that. Talking about the wedding was getting everyone in a better mood at the moment. It was something to look forward to.

Stef had been quiet since Lena made the announcement. Her expression was black and she was just staring straight ahead. She remembered when she was the one that made Lena this happy, when she was the one making her smile like that. She wanted that back, and yes, Lena was with Monte now, but, she couldn't help this feeling of betrayal that she STILL felt towards their relationship. She remembered the feeling of being close to Lena and almost kissing her a few hours ago, in the kitchen when Lena had found Callies letter. There was no denying that her feelings for Lena hadn't disappeared, the only thing that changed was the fact that Stef had to her best to hide them now and not to break down in tears every time she saw Monte with Lena. Even after almost a year. She could see that Lena still had feelings for her too, she could see it in her eyes, every time they touched each other or when they talked about the past. But… all of that didn't matter now. Monte had won. Monte had won the battle over Lena's heart.

As the children were still debating over the wedding, Lena saw the blank stare on Stef's face. It was then when it occurred to her that the news of her engagement must have hit Stef like a ton of bricks. For just a few seconds Lena looked at Stef and came close to regretting it. She quickly shook the thought out of her head.

"Stef, Can I talk to you for a moment, please?" Lena asked, trying not to sound to serious, so she wouldn't upset the children… what would seem unlikely since they were all still in a fiery discussion about the wedding.

Stef followed her now engaged, soon to be ex-wife into one of the corners on the other side of the waiting room.

"Are you alright, Stef?" Lena asked with sincere concern audible in her voice. She knew this must be hard for Stef.

Stef's expression changed. It was noticeable that she wasn't too happy with Lena's question. What did Lena even mean by that? "What? You think I'd sit and cry over you or something? Well, guess what, I'm totally fine! Go on and marry… marry whoever the fuck you want to marry, Lena! I don't care!" She was angry but she kept her voice down, to avoid making a scene.

"No, I… I just thought that you… you would maybe feel a little shocked or something. I don't know…" Lena trailed off.

Stef huffed, "Well you thought wrong, Lena. I'm totally fine. I'm happy that you found someone that makes you as happy as Monte." She lied with a smile on her face, masking the pain she felt on the inside.

Lena smiled slightly, She knew Stef well enough to see right through her little act. She knew just what was going on with her. She decided to just let it go, there was nothing she could do right now. Stef had her wall build up and there was nothing she could do to break it down at the moment.

The two talked a little, mostly about Monte's condition when their oldest daughter walked towards them. The look on her face was a little uncomfortable.

"Hey Cal, What's up?" Stef said, she rubbed Callie's shoulder in a comforting manner.

Callie turned to Lena , shifting her feet awkwardly. "Mom told me that you found my letter.." She mumbled, not looking Lena directly in the eyes.

The curly haired woman opened and then closed her mouth again. The past few hours she's been so focused on Monte's condition that she had pushed the matter of Callies abortion to the back of her mind. Now she didn't know exactly what to tell Callie.

The teenager finally gathered enough courage to look her mother in the eyes and started talking, "I really wanted to tell you, Momma… I was just scared I guess. You had just moved out a few weeks ago and I didn't want to cause more fights…. I didn't want to make the situation worse. I'm really, really sorry that I didn't tell you." Callie said, now on the verge of tears.

"Its alright, Love. I understand. I just want you to know that you can trust me. I love you and I want to know what's going on with you, Cal. We're a family no matter what, Okay?" Lena said before pulling Callie into a hug. During the hug she extended one arm towards Stef, who had been standing there admiring the moment between Callie and Lena, and pulled her into the hug. Stef accepted and stepped into the hug, wrapping her arms around both Callie and Lena, her head resting on top of Callie's.

The three hugged some more and talked out some details about the abortion before walking back to the rest of their family. Everyone gathered their things and walked towards the exit of the hospital. After everything that had happened that day, Lena decided that she didn't want to be alone at her Monte's house. Stef told her that she could stay over at her old house with the her and the kids if she wanted, which Lena accepted. She would go back to the hospital in the morning as soon as visiting hours started.

When they arrived at the house all the kids went straight to their rooms. They had all had a very eventful and exiting day and were all tired. Stef and Lena were sitting in the backyard with a cup of tea, reflecting on everything that had happened that day.

"I just hope that I go there tomorrow and she's awake." Lena said, clutching to her cup.

Stef didn't like Monte but, She didn't wish anything like this upon anyone. She wanted Monte to wake up too, no matter how much they didn't like each other.

"Me too." Stef said softly "Is her family going to see her?" She added.

Then Lena gasped. She had totally forgotten to inform Monte's family about the shooting and that Monte was in a coma. They were in Texas, thinking that Monte is safe and sound. She grabbed her phone of the table and searched for their home line number.

" _Babe, are you sure they're gonna like this?" Lena said as she held up the bottle if wine that she had picked out at the airport. She wanted to make a good impression on Monte's family. This was the first time that she was meeting them and she wanted them to like her._

 _Monte walked over to Lena and wrapped her arms around her neck, "You didn't have to buy them anything, Sweetie." She said before walking back to the bed where she had laid out her suitcase. She checked one last time if she packed everything and then zipped it up before lifting it off the bed. They had been staying at a hotel close to the airport after landing in Texas because they had landed at 2 AM and didn't want to wake Monte's parents at that hour._

 _The duo arrived at Monte's old house after an hour drive in a cab, on the way Monte had showed Lena all kinds of sights. The house was very large and had a cozy, country feel to it._

" _Here we are! This is where I grew up." Monte said as she payed the cab driver the fee for the ride and got out of the car._

" _It looks lovely, Babe!" Lena hollered enthusiastic._

 _Before Monte could answer her back, the front door to the house flew open._

" _OH, mi hermosa niña! Te extrañe!" a voice sounded. Lena watched as a older Latina walked outside and held her arms out for Monte to walk into. The woman was a little shorter than Monte and she was very pretty, you could see that she was highly educated. Not long after, another woman, around Monte's age emerged from the house. It was obvious to see that that was Monte's sister, her face was similar, her skin was a little more tan. Her eyes were a slightly lighter color and her hair was only shoulder length, unlike Monte's which was much longer._

" _Hey Mont!" The younger woman said as she speeded towards Monte and embraced her._

" _Hey, Itzy!, I missed you!" Monte told the woman._

 _Monte turned around to introduce Lena. "Mom, Itzy, This is Lena." She gestured her hand towards her girlfriend, "Lena this is my mother; Katarina and my younger sister; Itzel 'Conchita' Porter." She added, putting emphases on her sisters middle name, teasing her._

 _Lena smiled and shook their hands, "You have beautiful daughters, misses Porter… And I like your name." She added._

" _Oh darling. It is such a pleasure meeting you! You are just as beautiful as Monte described you!" Katarina said, her voice think with her Spanish accent. She gestured for everyone to follow her inside._

 _Before the front door even closed behind them there was a low and deep voice sounding from another area in the house._

" _Mont! How are ya, Buttons!" a tall man emerged from the main stairs of the house. He was bald and had a very pale skin tone. His piercing blue eyes took all your attention away from any other part of him._

" _Hi daddy! Monte hollered as the two embraced each other, "This is Lena." She said enthusiastic._

" _The name is Floyd, nice to meet ya." He said as he shook her hand, "I heard allot of good things about you." He added._

 _The weekend went by and Lena felt welcomed. Monte's family really treated her as a honored guest and they even asked her to see pictures of the kids and then commented on how beautiful they were. Lena felt right at home._

"Lena? Did you hear what I said?" Stef asked, shaking Lena from her flashback.

"I need to call them, I need to cal her family… they have to get over here." Lena said as she pressed the call button next to the phone number. She waited for someone to pick up the phone. How do you tell someone, something like this? How do you tell someone that their child had been shot and was now in a coma? Lena wasn't calm, how would she tell Katarina or Floyd to be calm?

"Hello?" a deep, low voice sounded trough the phone.

Lena swallowed the big lump in her throat and started speaking, "Mister Porter? Hi.. This is Lena."

 **Can we all just envision that Monte's sister looks like Catherine Lazo? Thank you hahaha... I'm thinking of moving her to San Diego and being a character in the story... what do you guys think? PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW with your thoughts and comments and requests!**


	8. Torture

**HI GUYS! So, here's the new chapter... sorry for the super long wait but, I just had a major writers block! Thank god for 'Junebugsm' (literally the best 'fosters' story writer ever) who helped me through it and freshened me up with some new ideas! Thank you so much Junebugsm for motivating me! you're the best! As you know, English is not my first language and not even my second (LOL) so please don't mind the grammatical errors! happy reading and I hope you like it :-) DON'T DORGET TO LEAVE A REVIEW!**

 **ALSO, before you start reading, I don't know if Fanfiction is going to put the flashback I wrote in italic… cause it didn't last time…so I wrote** ** _*Start Flashback*_** **and** ** _*End Flashback*_** **in italic and bold, before and after the flashback just to be sure!**

The last few days had been nothing but pure torture for Lena. She had tried to keep herself together but, she failed numerous times, she would break down and cry involuntarily. It was getting harder and harder to keep the hope alive, it was all taking way to long and she just wanted everything to get back to normal. She wanted Monte to wake up, she wanted to marry her and she wanted to hear Monte tell her that she loved her too. She hated the powerless feeling she felt when she sat next to Monte's Hospital bed. Lena had never felt like this before and she didn't know what to do.

It had now been almost a whole week since the shooting and Monte had still not woken up from her coma. Monte's family had the choice to either pull the plug on the machines that kept her alive or wait a little longer. Her brainwaves were at a bare minimum, the doctors had told Monte's parents that she was basically already gone and the chances of her waking up again were less than 5 percent.

Katarina, Monte's mother, refused to give up on her daughter, no matter how slim the doctors said her chances of survival were after this period. She needed to see her daughter wake up and she refused to give up faith. When she was not in Monte's room, talking to her comatosed daughter, Katarina was in the Hospital's chapel, praying for her daughter to open her eyes again. The doctors had told her that it was 'unlikely' that Monte would wake up again but they didn't know her daughter like she did. Monte was a strong woman, a real fighter and she always got through hard times, there was no doubt in Katarina's mind that this time wouldn't be any different. All she had to do was pray, and that was precisely what she had been doing since the moment they arrived in San Diego.

Monte's sister, Itzel was a little less optimistic about the whole situation. She was a newly graduated brain surgeon herself and she knew that it would take a small miracle for her sister to wake up at this point. There was almost no way that a brain, sending out such a small number of waves would regain itself again. She was raised to always have hope but right now, she knew that the doctors were basically waiting for her parents to pull the plug on the machines. She wouldn't say it out loud yet but, she had found peace with the fact that her older sister was probably never going to open her eyes again. She had cried her eyes out, day after day as she saw her mother pray to god at the foot end of Monte's hospital bed and her father stroking Monte's hair as he spoke to her. How would they handle this? This would certainly take a big toll on both of their mental stability.

After Monte's parents and sister had arrived in Sand Diego six days ago, they had come straight to the hospital and they only left once a day to freshen up at Monte's house, sleep at night and to eat dinner.

Lena and Marianna on the other hand, had stayed at Stef's house, not wanting to be in Monte's house without Monte herself there. Being in her house was a constant reminder of the condition she was in and what could happen is she didn't wake up soon. Pictures of Monte were all over the place, pictures where she was laughing and smiling, pictures that were hard to look at, especially for Lena.

Marianna had been at the hospital every day too but, only during visiting hours. She tried to be as helpful as she possibly could. Everyone kept telling her that what happened to monte wasn't her fault and she understood that but, she couldn't shake the faint feeling of responsibility that she felt towards the whole situation. SHE was the one that cheated on Nick and Monte was trying to protect HER when she got shot by him. When the rare moments accrued that she was alone in the hospital room with Monte, she would tell her repeatedly how sorry she was, and how much she hoped that all of this never happened.

"I just don't know how I feel… I never felt like this before so it's hard to explain." Marianna said to Callie. They were in their room at Stef's house. It was a little after 4 PM and Lena and Marianna had just come back from the hospital, Marianna had made her way upstairs to the room she shared with her sister within seconds.

"I know you are closer to Monte than the rest of us, so it must be harder on you…. Maybe you should see a counselor or something?" Callie answered as she painted one of her sister's nails a soft tone of blue with the tiny brush. She loved having Marianna back in their room full time but, she wished it was under different circumstances.

"You sound like momma" Marianna chuckled slightly as she put on a mocking voice, "Maybe you should see a counselor, Marianna, it's good for you to talk about your feelings…" She mocked as both Callie and herself laughed at the pretty accurate interpretation of something their mom would say.

Callie closed the little bottle of blue nail polish and put it back in her bag before ruffling through it again and pulling a clear one that said, 'top coat'. She opened it and started going over the nails she just painted again.

"Do you think she's going to make it?" Callie asked carefully.

The younger girl cocked her mouth to one side, "I don't know… I really hope so. Momma seems like she isn't giving up and Monte's family doesn't want to pull the plug so I guess that's a good thing, right?" She said.

"I guess…" Callie said, "What are they like? Monte's family, I mean." She added. She had heard Lena and Marianna talk about them allot but she hadn't met them yet.

After the day of the shooting, none of the other kids went to the hospital. Stef had told them that they could only visit if they really felt the need to. With Monte's family there, it would get way too busy with four more teenagers. Jude had visited twice but after school started again, he didn't go again. Marianna was the only one that visited the hospital EVERY day.

Marianna thought for a minute before replying to her sister, "They're cool. Her mom is Mexican and she's catholic… she prays like 24/7... in Spanish. Her dad reminds me of a cowboy with his southern accent and her sister is just like her, inside and out. They don't make me feel guilty like I thought they would… They're actually pretty empathic, considering…"

"That's good, I didn't even know Monte was Mexican!" Callie said as she finished Marianna's last nail.

"Half Mexican… Her dad is Caucasian and her mom is Mexican, she kind of…" Marianna stopped mid-sentence, hoping Callie wouldn't notice her sudden silence. What she was about to say didn't make any sense anyway.

"She reminds you of what?" Callie asked.

Marianna sighed, "She kind of reminds me of Ana… what she could have been like if she wasn't a junkie."

 ** _*Start Flashback*_** _Lena heard the front door open and close again. 'Finally' she thought, Stef had been away for so long, her shift ended at 6 and it was now almost 7:30, she was starting to get worried. She heard Brandon's voice coming from his room yelling for his mommy before she saw him running towards the hallway where Stef was._

 _Lena had just moved into Stef's apartment and they were now looking for a house of their own but it was all taking a little longer since Stef and Mike were still trying to sort things out with their lawyers._

" _Hi, Honey! I missed you, you were gone for so long!" Lena said as she got the beef stew she just prepared from the stove and set in on the dining table so they could eat._

" _I missed you too… I got a little caught up at work, or two littles" Stef said_

 _She watched as Stef emerged from the hallway with Brandon on her hip. She was just about to speak again when she saw two other children clamping to Stef's uniform pants. It was a boy and a girl about five or six years old, they were definitely siblings and they were definitely Latin. Lena was a little confused as to why they were in their apartment but, she thought it was best not to ask Stef what was going on in front of the two little ones._

 _She made her way over to Stef and bended her knees until she reached the height of the two kids. She smiled at them, "Hi there, my name is Lena... What are your names?"_

" _My name is Marianna… you're pretty!" The little girl said as she touched Lena's face ever so softly. Lena's heart immediately melted for the little girl._

" _Thank you, you're very pretty girl too, Marianna." She answered._

" _I'm Jesus!" The boy said, putting on a big boy voice. Lena didn't know who these children were but she thought they were absolutely adorable._

" _Well I just made dinner, are you guys hungry?" Lena asked._

 _The twins looked up at Stef, as if they were asking for permission. Stef walked to the dining table and they automatically followed her as they still held on to her pants. When they were seated and Lena had served all three kids a plate of food, Stef gestured for Lena to follow her into the living room where they could talk in private._

" _So, who are our adorable little guests?" Lena asked._

" _They were brought in to the station a few hours ago, their mother is a drug addict and their father is in jail. CPS removed them from the home and they need a place to stay until we find a foster family for them. I didn't want to leave them at the station so…" she gestured at the kids with a look that said, 'tadaa'_

" _Alright, yeah, they can stay in the guest bedroom."_

 _six months later, CPS had finally found a foster family for Jesus and Marianna, it wasn't perfect and it was short term but it was a foster family. Stef and Lena finally got the two kids to open up to them, Brandon enjoyed having them in the house with him too. The two women decided to get a foster permit and foster the twins themselves until they found a better foster family for them,_

" _Momma, can Jesus and I play video games until dinner? Please, please, please, please?" Brandon asked with a whiney voice._

" _Sure, go ahead." Lena said, as soon as the words left her mouth the boys ran to the TV and turned on the PlayStation._

 _Lena saw that the little girl she had grown so affectionate towards in the last six months was a little bored do she asked, "Marianna do you want to help me make dinner?"_

 _Marianna nodded and walked behind her into the kitchen. Lena let her do little things like; peeling the skin of the onions and adding salt to the soup she was making._

" _How come Brandon calls you and Stef both Mommy?" Marianna asked suddenly while she was chopping up a paprika with a butter knife._

 _Lena smiled to herself, "Well, Stef and I are a couple…" She saw the confused look on Mariana's face and tried to explain it differently, "like girlfriend and girlfriend"_

" _Ooooh! Now I get it!" Marianna said, "We only have one Mommy… She's not nice like you guys are... She does bad stuff to us" She added as if it was nothing._

 _Lena's heart broke for the little girl. She spoke about her mother like it was the most normal thing in the world. She knew the girl deserved a family that loved her. That night when Stef came home and they were in bed, Lena told Stef how she felt and that she really felt that they needed to make sure that the twins ended up in the nicest family possible._

" _Maybe… we should adopt them." Stef started slowly, looking at Lena with a look that said 'hey it's just an option'_

" _No, we already have Brandon, we can't just go from having one kid to having three. Where are we gonna get the money to take care of three kids and ourselves?" Lena said. She loved the twins but, she didn't think she was ready to ADOPT children. They already had Brandon and for now, he was more than enough. Right?_

 _Three weeks later, Lena and Stef were house hunting and they found the perfect house to move in to. Lena had let it slip that the house had enough rooms for all the kids to have their own rooms. Stef had never been happier, not only were they moving into their dream house, they were moving into it with THEIR three kids._

 _That evening, Stef and Lena sat Brandon down to ask him if he was alright with adopting the twins into their family on what he had answered "There is enough to go around."_

 _Lena and Stef put him to bed and kissed him goodnight before going to the twins' room._

 _They opened the door and saw that they were still awake, Marianna was 'reading' a book and Jesus was playing some game on the Gameboy that Stef and Lena had given him for their birthday._

" _Hi, you two! It's almost time for bed." Stef said, sitting down on Marianna's bed. Marianna put her picture book under her pillow and laid down, ready to be tucked in for the night._

" _Stef, I brushed my teethes all by myself! Lena didn't help me today, I'm a big girl huh?" Marianna said, showing Stef her teeth, one of her front ones was already missing and it have the little girl a funny look. Stef thought it was adorable that the little girl was showing off to her. It meant that she wanted Stef to be proud of her and that she trusted her._

" _Awesome! Big girl, Marianna! High five!" Stef said as she high fived the little girl._

" _Before we kiss you two goodnight we wanted to ask you something" Lena started._

" _okay!" Both twins said at the same time, making the two women giggle. They were so different when it came to their characters but, sometimes it was unmistakable that they were twins. They would hate the same foods and sometimes they would say things at the same time._

" _How would you two like it if… we adopted you?" Stef asked slowly, letting the question sink in their heads._

" _Like… forever?" Jesus asked as he fumbled with the edge of his Gameboy. He didn't want to be disappointed again. They had been in awful foster family before being placed back with their mother until they ended up with Stef and Lena. Stef and Lena were the kind of parents they would see on TV, they never thought people like that actually existed._

" _Forever…" Lena said, tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes._

" _So, then we can call you mommy just like Brandon does?" Marianna asked, trying to find out if she understood correctly._

" _Yes, baby." Stef answered._

 _The twins looked at each other for a few moments before both nodding their heads._

" _Yes!" They said at the same time again. With that, Lena hugged Jesus and reached out her arm for Marianna to join them in the embrace. Stef followed and wrapped her arms around them too. About a month later, Stef, Lena, Brandon, Jesus and Marianna moved into their new house together. Life started to turn into a beautiful new routine and it seemed like they couldn't get happier._ ** _*End Flashback*_**

Callie moved to sit next her younger sister and wrapped one arm around her shoulder. She knew that Marianna's birthmother was a sensitive subject for the young Latina. The last time that Callie had heard anything about Ana was when her moms had invited her over for dinner.

It had been Marianna and Jesus's choice to finally meet her for the first time in years and so Lena and Stef arranged a dinner. The dinner was meant for just Marianna, Jesus the moms and Ana but, Marianna insisted her other siblings join the dinner. When Ana showed up high as a kite off whatever drugs she had taken, Stef quickly made the decision to send her home.

A few months later, Ana reached out again and asked to meet the twins again, this time Stef and Lena took the Twins to a public place to meet her. She had been sober and everything went much better, after that meeting, there was more frequent contact between the twins and their birth mother. It was very much visible that their moms, especially Lena had a hard time adjusting to this new person in the lives of their twins. Over the next few months, the contact had drastically watered down again… or so everyone thought.

Before Callie could say anything, Marianna started talking again, "Ana is pregnant again…"

"what? Really?" Callie asked.

Downstairs, Stef and Lena were busy preparing dinner for the Porters. Lena had offered to cook dinner for them that day, they had been eating take out at Monte's house ever since they got to Sand Diego almost a week ago. Lena thought they would enjoy a homemade meal. Stef offered to help her, they were making Potatoes salad, stuffed chicken and mixed vegetables.

"After you drop this off, are you coming straight home? Or are you… going back to the hospital?" Stef asked as she continued chopping the carrot in front of her.

Lena grabbed the ovenmit to check on the chicken, "I think I'm going to check on Monte really quick and then come here."

"I'll make sure to stay up until you're home safe okay?" Stef went back to chopping up her carrots when she suddenly noticed an ever so small sob coming from behind her. When she turned around, she saw Lena with her back turned towards her and the sobs became more auditable. Stef walked to where Lena was and just wrapped her arms around her waist from the back. For about five minutes they stayed like that, just like that. No words, nothing. Just Stef holding Lena, comforting her.

After what seemed like forever for them Lena turned around, "I just want her to wake up, Stef… That's all I want!" Lena sobbed in Stef's arms.

Stef felt sad, not only because Monte was in a coma, not only because Lena was crying but, the fact that Lena was crying over another woman was hurting her more than anything. She knew that it was wrong to feel like that but, she couldn't help it. She genuinely felt horrible about the shooting and Monte's condition but, she felt like her feelings for Lena were stronger than her feelings towards anything else at that point.

Lena kept sobbing, her tears soaking trough Stef's grey shirt. Just the feeling of Stef holding her made her feel calmer. The whole situation with Monte made her emotions explode all over the place. What if Monte didn't wake up anymore? What if her family decides to take her off life support? There were so many what if's. For a second she let her mind go blank, she let her emotions just go numb. In that moment, all she felt was Stef's hands rubbing her back and her voice sounding in her ears, telling her 'Everything is going to be alright, Love'. She had missed this more than she wanted to admit.

Stef breathed in the smell of Lena, they hadn't been in each other's arms for so long and it felt like home. For a moment, she thought back to the day of the shooting before she got called in to the school, when she and Lena almost kissed, but Lena had pulled away right before their lips touched.

She knew Lena well enough to know that she could effortlessly take advantage of her emotional instability right now. She knew Lena well enough to know that if she leaned in and kissed her right now, she would not push her away. But she also knew that it would break this new… friendship that they were starting to build up again. Stef knew that all Lena needed right now was a shoulder to cry on and she respected so, that was just what she was going to be. A shoulder to cry on.

The two were still lost in their embrace when they heard the voice of their youngest sounding from behind them.

"Uh, Moms?" Jude said. He had just walked into the kitchen and saw their moms holding each other, he hadn't seen them being that close since before Stef found out Lena was having an affair with Monte.

Stef and Lena quickly released each other and turned to face Jude.

"Hey buddy, whatsup?" Stef said, coming down from her high that was Lena.

Jude thought for a minute, he didn't really know how to put in words what he was feeling and what he wanted to say, "I… I was wondering if you guys needed help with cooking?" He tried to sound as normal as possible. He came downstairs to talk about something else but, seeing how upset Lena looked, he decided not to bother them with it.

"Yeah sure, you can help me cutting these" Stef said as she pointed to the bowl of yet to be chopped vegetables.

When they were done cooking, Stef offered that the whole family could tag along to Monte's house so Lena could drop off the food they prepared to Monte's family and after that they could Go out for their own dinner at Lena's favorite restaurant. She thought that after the dinner Lena could go to the hospital.

Stef and Lena went with Lena's car and the kids all went with Brandon's car. Brandon drove behind Lena's car to Monte's house and parked behind her when they got there. All the kids waited patiently as they saw Stef and Lena get out of Lena's car with the food. Of course, all of them, except Marianna, were focused on who was going to open the door they were all a little curious about Monte's family.

Lena ringed the doorbell. Even though she lived there she didn't want to use her house key because she felt like the Porters needed some kind of privacy. The door opened and Monte's mother appeared from behind it.

Stef took in the appearance of the woman, she was not very tall she had long hair for an older woman, it reminded her of Monte's. The woman had strong Latin facial features with prominent, she could see where Monte got her slightly upturned nose from. This must be her mother, Stef thought

"Hi Katarina… how are you?" Lena asked with a sympathetic smile plastered on her face.

Monte's mother returned a weak smile, "As good as can be expected, but, I know everything is going to be alright" She spoke with her prominent Spanish accent.

Lena liked that about Monte's mother, not for one moment had she doubted that her daughter would wake up again. She was one hundred percent sure that this was all just temporairy.

Katarina looked at Stef before reaching out to shake her hand, "Hi, I'm Katarina Porter."

Stef shook Katarina's hand, "Stef Adams-Foster, nice to meet you, ma'am." Stef introduced herself, still using Lena's Last name.

It was then that Monte's mom realized who Stef was, "Oh, you're Lena's ex-wife?" she asked.

Stef nodded her head, not sure how the woman would react to her now that she knew who she was, she didn't know what Monte had told her mother about her.

Katarina's facial expression softened, "Well, Lena sure had good taste in women, you're gorgeous!" She said, rubbing Stef's arm in an affectionate way, "I met your daughter Marianna, she is such an a sweet, empathic young woman, you must be so proud of her!" Katarina added.

"Thank you, and yes we are, she's right there in the car with our other kids." Stef said, pointing at the car where Brandon, Jesus, Marianna, Callie and Jude were sitting, clearly looking at the three grownups who were standing at Monte's front door.

Katarina smiled and waved at them, they all waved back simultaneously.

Lena smiled at her fiancé's mother before speaking, "Let me put this inside for you guys so you can enjoy your dinner, I hope you like it… It's stuffed chicken, potato salad and…" Lena was cut off by Katarina.

"Why don't you all stay for dinner? I would love to get to know your kids, Lena." She said, a hopeful tone in her voice.

"I… We were going out for dinner actually, we could…" Lena started but this time she was cut off again.

"We would love to, we made more than enough food anyways, right Lena?" Stef stated with a goofy smile on her face. She herself was a little curious to find out more about Monte's family, if the mother of her children was going to Marry into a new family she would like to know more about them.

"Oh-kay… Sure you go get them and I'll bring the food inside then." Lena said as she walked past Katarina and inside the house. When she walked inside the living room she saw Itzel sitting on the couch, reading a book.

"Oh, hey Lena." Itzel said, getting up from the couch. Lena greeted her back and explained that her family was staying over for dinner. Itzel helped her set the table in the dining room.

Moments later, Stef and the kids walked into the dining room followed by Monte's mother.

"Hi, Itzel!" Marianna said as she walked to the dining table that was alreay set. The rest of her siblings shook Itzel's hand and sat down too.

Just as everyone was seated there was the sound of heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Monte's father walked into the living room and then into the dining room.

"Well, Hello… I'm Floyd. You must be Lena's kids, Nice to meet ya'll!" He said smiling at everyone as he sat down next to his wife at the table.

Just as Jesus wanted to pull the bowl of Potato salad closer to himself to put some on his plate, Katarina started talking.

"Let's thank the Lord before we eat." She said as she bowed her head.

All the teenagers looked dumbfounded, they never prayed before dinner before. They just kind of stared around as Katarina began to say grace. The only one other than Monte's family that was bowing her head was Stef, being raised strictly Catholic, it was an automatism to bow her head in respect when someone prayed.

"O Lord, we thank you for the gifts of your bounty which we enjoy at this table. As you have provided for us in the past, so may you sustain us throughout our lives. Oh, sweet Lord, may your healing breath, breathe over our daughter Monte..." She started, her voice growing stronger throughout the prayer.

Itzel looked up during the prayer and saw all the kids looking around awkwardly. She made a funny face to Marianna who snickered slightly. Itzel bowed her head again after that.

After the word, "Amen" Left Katarina's lips, Jesus dug into the potato salad earning a sigh from both Stef and Lena and a small laugh from Monte's family. Smalltalk started flowing and soon everyone was telling more and more about themselves. Monte's mother was especially interested in the children, she didn't have any grandkids yet and if Monte was going to marry Lena, she would suddenly have five step-grandchildren.

"So, when your momma told you about Monte, what did you think at first?" Floyd asked. Monte hadn't told her parents that she had a month's long affair with Lena behind Stef's back prior to Lena's kids finding out.

Everyone's facial expression morphed into an awkward one, none of the kids had the guts to answer that question. They had found out when they heard Stef yell the fact through the house during the first fight they had about Monte. Monte's parents noticed this and looked at Lena for an explanation.

Lena looked at Stef for a second, noticing the emotionless look before clearing her throat saying, "Ah, Stef and I were uhm… we were still married when Monte and I started seeing each other, so at first they didn't like it too much." She explained, not daring to look Floyd in the eyes.

Katarina's mouth dropped open as she put one and one together. She would never have expected her daughter to have an affair with someone, she had always taught valued the meaning of marriage.

"So, you cheated… on your wife with my daughter?" Monte's father asked with disbelief in his voice, this didn't sound like something his daughter would do at all.

Lena nodded her head, "But it wasn't like… it wasn't like that I swear." Lena stuttered. Monte had told her multiple times how important the values of marriage were to her parents. The fact that they accepted her coming out as bisexual was already a small miracle in its own. At first of course, they tried to talk her out of it, telling her that marriage to a woman wasn't going to be as serious as marriage to a man, that it was just a phase after she divorced her husband. Now that they found out that her relationship with Lena started as an affair, they would maybe come back on their accepting ways.

"My daughter was 'The other woman' for you?" Katarina started, the fiery rage audible in her voice. She had put her knife and fork down and was looking at Lena with that typical Latina skeptical look, A look Marianna had also flashed at her times before.

"No, Ma'am… It wasn't like that. We just fell for each other at the wrong time." She was cut off by Katarina's voice again.

"De ninguna manera. No puedes amar a dos personas a la vez." She said, her disbelief and slight anger taking over, forgetting to speak English. She got the feeling that Lena had just used Monte and when her wife found out she had no choice than to stay with her.

Now Jesus started to talk, "Tu hija era parte del asunto también, no sólo mi mamá!" he said calmly, trying not to put more tension on the situation. He didn't want to sound rude but he couldn't just sit there and let these people talk to his mother like that.

"He's right mom, Monte is an adult and she knew what she was doing." Itzel spoke, looking at her mom with a look that said; 'calm down!' Her parents had this vision of Monte, that she was perfect, and that she didn't make any mistakes. She was tiered of them expecting her to be anything but a normal human who made mistakes.

"I really love your daughter, and I'm going to marry her because I love her and she loves me back." Lena softly said, reassuring them that Monte wasn't just some replaceable toy to her. She loved monte and she didn't want to have to prove it repeatedly to everyone.

During the whole conversation, Stef had been silent the whole time, hearing Lena declaring her undying love for Monte and explaining the affair to her parents was bringing up all those feelings again. Those feelings that she felt when she found out about the affair. Those feelings she felt when they had been fighting. Those feelings she felt when they filed for divorce. She wished that she had never felt them. Hearing the woman she loved talk about loving someone else was the hardest thing in the for her. But, she had to keep her emotions for herself, she didn't want to look… defeated by it.

Katarina calmed down and apologized to Lena for getting a little heated. Lena accepted the apology and dinner went on 'normally'.

When everyone was done eating, Katarina asked if Lena was still going to the hospital with them. Lena thought for a second before answering no. She would visit first thing in the morning, right now she was just too tired and she needed rest.

Before Stef, Lena and the kids left, Katarina and Floyd asked Lena if they could speak to her alone for a minute. Lena hollered at Stef to wait in the car for her and then followed them to the living room and they all sat down.

"Lena, I wanted to apologize again for my horrible behavior earlier, Dear." Katarina started, the remorse visible in her voice. She looked at Lena with the softest expression on her face.

"It's alright, I understand that you are under a lot of stress right now." Lena said. She understood that everyone was just a little more irritated and on edge than normal due to Monte's coma. She would probably be even worse than miss Porter is something like this happened with one of her kids.

"Monte is going to be just fine, I just know it… I know my daughter, she's strong!" Katarina said proudly, there was no hint of doubt to be heard in her voice.

Lena on the other hand was constantly thinking about the what if's. She knew Monte was strong but, the doctors had repeatedly told them that the chances of Monte waking u were very small. She had hope in a miracle but she also prepared herself for the worst possible scenario.

"I wanted to tell you how happy I am that our Monte has found someone like you. I can see that you genuinely love her and I know that you would never purposely hurt her." Floyd said and with that he got up and rubber Lena's arm before walking out of the living room.

Katarina moved closer to Lena and kissed her cheek before also getting up from the couch and leaving the room. The curly haired woman followed her to the front door, but not before walking to the fireplace and taking one of the pictures that was placed atop it down. It was a random picture Lena and monte had taken together on a school trip, it was one of their best days together. That was the day Lena realized that she really loved monte. She loved everything Monte did and she didn't want to spend a day without that woman by her side anymore.

Lena walked to the car and drove to Stef's house. The whole car ride was in silence, Lena knew that the whole conversation at the dinner table must have upset her. Lena knew that Stef's feelings for her hadn't changed a bit, she had just become better at not showing them. Hearing her talk about Monte and how much she loved her during the dinner must have been hard for her.

When they arrived home All the kids disappeared to their rooms, tired for the day. Lena noticed that Stef went straight to her bedroom too. She felt like she needed to sort this out with Stef, she had made it seem like their marriage had been nothing compaired to her feelings for monte and she knew that as wrong of her. She just wanted to get the point across to Monte's parents that Monte hadn't just been 'the other woman' to her.

Lena walked up the stairs and stood still in front of Stef's bedroom door, the bedroom that they had shared together for all those years. She knocked on the door and almost immediately a faint 'come in' sounded from the other side. She took a deep breath before opening the door and walking inside.

"Stef, we need to talk…" Lena said as she walked over to the bad and sat next to her soon to be ex-wife.

Stef smiled at her, she knew that Lena was about to apologize for everything she said at the dinner, or rather HOW she said it.

"You don't have to apologize, Lena." Stef said, not wanting to hear Lena's apologies, tell me… why didn't you go to the hospital after dinner?" she added, changing the subject.

Lena was silent for a minute, "I don't know… I just, I'm tired of not seeing Monte opening her eyes. And I'm scared…." Lena didn't finish.

Stef moved closer to her when she saw that Lena was getting a little emotional "Scared of what?" she asked.

Lena shrugged, "Scared that when I go see her it will be the last time." Lena now let the tears stream down her face freely.

Stef hated seeing Lena cry like this. It made her feel powerless and it made her feel weak. She moved closer to her and wrapped her arms around her, she immediately felt Lena melt into her touch and relax into her arms.

Again, the feeling of Stef's arms around her made Lena calm. It made her able to shut down her pain for a minute. Right now, it was just her and Stef. There was silence in the room, not one sound was heard but the steady breathing of them both.

Without thinking, Stef laid down on the bed, making Lena rest her read on her chest. Stef's breathing hitched when she felt Lena's hand resting on her ribs, just below her breast, her fingertips grazing the underside of her boob.

Lena looked up at Stef, she had noticed the sudden uneven breathes Stef was letting out and it took her a few moments to understand that it was because of where she had placed her hand. Without thinking she asked, "Do you miss this?"

Stef didn't answer but Lena felt her slowly nodding her head.

"Me too" Lena said truthfully. Right then, Lena forgot about all her worries, it was just her and Stef, like it always used to be. It was home. She leaned up on one elbow and looked into Stef's eyes, she was going to say something but, she had already forgotten what that was.

Stef didn't know what was going on but she just went with it, before her mind could register anything else, Lena kissed her hard, pressing her lips on Stef's. Stef moaned at the feeling of Lena's soft lips on her own. The curly haired woman took advantage of that and by letting her tongue slip into Stef's mouth, their tongues wrestling each other. The kiss was slow, lazy and full of meaning. Everything else in the world was gone in that moment, it was just the two of them

While they kissed, Lena's hands started to roam all over Stef's body, from her face to her hip and then to her breast, giving it a gentle squeeze. Stef half moaned as she suddenly removed Lena's hand from her breast and pulled back from their kiss.

"Lena, we need to stop…" She whispered. No matter how much Stef wanted this, she couldn't do it right now. If she and Lena were going to do this, she needed Lena to be one hundred percent on board with it. She knew Lena well enough to know that the kiss had been not much more than Lena being emotionally confused. She needed a way to keep her mind off everything that was happening.

Lena looked at her soon to be ex-wife. Kissing Stef made her feel like she was somewhere else, like she had no worries. It was hard to explain. Now that Stef had pulled away she had also pulled away the dream world Lena had been in during the kiss. Now she was pulled back to reality. Her hand short to her moth, it was still tingling from Stef's lips. Why did that happen… and why did it feel so good?

"I didn't mean to do that." Lena said quickly. Now that she was back in reality, she was disgusted with herself. She was ENGAGED to Monte! Monte was in a COMA! They were getting a DIVORCE! What was wrong with her?

"It's okay… I know, I understand. You should get some rest." Stef said before kissing Lena's forehead. She understood completely that what just happened, Lena needed a break from reality and Stef was there to give it to her.

"Yeah, I'm… I have to be at the hospital early tomorrow." Lena said as she got up from the bed and made her way to the bedroom door.

"Goodnight, Lena." Stef said.

"Goodnight, Love" Lena answered as she made her way to Marianna and Callie's room where she had been sleeping for the past few days.

She thought about Monte, fighting for her life in that hospital bed while she was out here kissing her soon to be ex-wife. Lena knew that there were still feeling, a connection between herself and Stef but, she had made her choice and it had been Monte. She loved Monte, she loved everything about Monte and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with her.

Lena got into the bed next to Marianna and covered herself. She fell asleep.

The next morning, Lena woke up extra early to be at the hospital before Monte's parents go there. She didn't mind having them there at all but, today she wanted to be alone with her, even if it was just for a few minutes.

She parked her car in front of the hospital and walked straight to Monte's room. She slowly opened the door before going inside. The strong smell of disinfectant filling her nostrils and the groggy sound of Monte's breathing filling her ears. She walked to Monte's bed and sat down on it, stroking Monte's hair. She planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Good morning, baby." She said, getting no response. She reached into her bag and pulled out the picture of the two of them that she took from the fireplace, she put it on the small table next to Monte before sitting on the bed again.

"Oh, my beautiful, beautiful Monte. I miss you, you have to wake up." Lena said, still stroking her finance's hair. It seemed that day by day Monte became paler, the breaths she let out became groggier and the small responses like her eyes fluttering when the light from the hallway got smaller.

"I'm not giving up on you, you are…" Then as she was talking, Lena's heart jumped for a second. Was she imagining things or did Monte just open her eyes and close them again?

"Baby? Monte? Can you do that again?" Lena asked, she needed to make sure that she was not just seeing things. After a few seconds, Monte opened her eyes again, they were hazy and they dulled around the room lazily. It had been so long since Lena had seen those beautiful brown eyes. This was most definitely not just a reflex to any light, she was awake!

"Oh, my God, Monte!" Lena got up from the bed fast and ran into the hallway and practically SCREAMED for a doctor.

The doctor came and asked her to wait in the waiting room as he checked out what was going on. Lena did as she was asked and called Monte's parents to come to the hospital as quickly as they could.

Just as she got off the phone with Floyd, the doctor came to her.

"And?" Lena asked instantly.

The doctor smiled at her, "Her eyes are open, they are a little out of focus, but she definitely opened them by herself."

Lena's eyes started to water, "Does this mean she's going to be alright, Doctor?" she asked with a voice full of hope.

"It means that her brain is sending waves through her body again, so, she is most likely to heal indeed. We out the life support machines on a lower level to encourage the brain to start doing everything by itself again. You can go see her, not more than two people in her room at once though, it might be a little too much for her." The doctor said giving Lena a small smile before walking away.

 **That was it for this chapter! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW with any request for the story and I'll do my best to put it in there! It motivates me to write faster! I'll update the next chapter within this week! :-)**


	9. Bruised

**Hi guys! Yes, I am back with another LOOONGG (REALLY LONG) chapter! This chapter skips ahead a few months, I will make a chapter that looks back on Monte waking up and her healing process and everything but, for now I decided to just skip ahead a little. I was going to put some more flashback in here but… the chapter was already so long that I just decided to keep it like this!**

 **NOW, you guys really went nuts in the reviews huh? I don't know if I should side with the Monte/Lena fans or the Stef/Lena fans… PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW with what you think! Until I figure it out, there is allot more story to be written so sit back and enjoy this chapter!**

 **BEFORE you start reading please remember that English isn't my first language so… please bear with me. As always whatever tiny bit of smut I have in this chapter will be pointed out with** _ ***WARNING SMUT AHEAD***_ **and** _ ***END OF SMUT***_ **before and after the smutty part in bold and cursive…**

 **Allot goes on in this chapter so read carefully so you don't miss some important little details.**

 **Happy reading, loves! Please REVIEW if you have any suggestions or requests for the story!**

Another two months went by and Monte's health was almost back to normal. All that was noticeable from the shooting was her wound on the underside of her breast and the occasional headache she would get, but the doctor told her that that was normal and it was likely to never subside completely, like a chronic migraine. She had even started working again, on her first day back, allot of the students had brought her self-made cards and even flowers. she had pinned all the cards on the closet that Marianna, Jude and herself had hid in before Nick found them, in some way she felt like it empowered her, it was a reminder of just how lucky she was to still be alive.

Lena had insisted that her fiancée would stay home from work for at least another month, but Monte was getting bored of being at home alone when Lena and Marianna went to the school. She wanted to feel active and alive, sitting at home was definitely not helping her achieve that. Of course, the shooting had left a certain impact on her emotional wellbeing. When she heard sounds like; the creaking of a door or a gun going off in a movie she would get chills down her spine and her adrenaline level would pump itself up instantly. Every once in a while, she would wake up from a nightmare about the shooting with a suffocating feeling as if she couldn't breathe similar to the feeling she had when she woke up in the hospital and her breathing was still being regulated by machines. It was indeed a lot to deal with but, with the counseling she was taking, she was confident that it would all get better with time.

Marianna had been going to her counseling sessions too. After the shooting, she had insisted with her moms that she didn't need counseling. The fist few weeks she didn't have nightmares or any type angst at all. But after a while her anxiety started getting higher and she had problems with sleeping through the whole night. She would wake up at 3 AM and wasn't able to fall asleep anymore after that. When Lena found her being up at that time a few days in a row, she and Stef decided to take her to a psychologist for counseling. After a few sessions and following the counselor's guidelines, the sleeplessness already reduced slightly. Now, Marianna was close to being her old, sassy self. She no longer blamed herself for the whole ordeal and things were finally getting back to normal for her.

Surprisingly, Jude had no problems after the shooting. The first few days he had been in kind of state of shock but, that didn't last longer than a week before he went back to being his old self. It hadn't been the first time that something as shocking as the shooting had happened to him and through his life he had taught himself how to cope with situations like this. After Monte got out of the hospital he had also been spending more nights at her house with his mom and Marianna. It was his way of showing his gratitude towards Monte.

Because all the other kids luckily weren't in Monte's office during the shooting, they were all fine as soon as they heard that Monte had woken up out of her coma.

While Monte had been at home, Lena had been having a double load of work at the school. She had to maintain her own work as well as Monte's. She would often take the files home to finish her work, sometimes till very early in the morning, careful not to let Monte notice. One side of her was very concerned about Monte coming back to work so soon, but then another part of her was extremely relieved to have part of the work being lifted off her shoulders. She did, however, make sure that Monte wasn't throwing herself at the work too much.

Monte had been back at work for about a week or two, right in time to plan the budget plan for the next semester together with Lena. Because there was only a short time period before they had to present their budget plan to the school board, they continued working on it through their lunch breaks.

"You can't just take the whole spring semester fund and spend it on only one department, we can spend whatever is left from last semester on that... you have to split it up so that next semester we have 15 percent..." Lena's sentence was interrupted by three small knocks on the door of Monte's office door. She looked at monte who probably didn't even hear the knocks and was still chewing slightly on the end of her pen while staring at the laptop in front of them.

"Come in!" Lena hollered, snapping Monte out of her concentration. She quickly straightened herself a little and scooted away a few inches from Lena to make them look more professional before the door opened.

The look on both Monte and Lena's faces had a slight hint of shock before turning back to normal when the person stepped into the room. This was literally the last person they would expect to come to Monte's office during lunch break.

"Sally, hi..." Monte said, putting her most non-shocked face on. Sally Benton, the girl who had tried to kiss her and lied to her parents about it, putting Monte in a whole lot of trouble, had knocked on her door. It was lunch break so, she hadn't been send to the principal's office by a teacher or anything.

Sally kept her face turned slightly away from Monte and Lena, her big hair falling in front of it. "Hi... I-I was wondering if... I could come in and maybe talk for a minute?" Sally uttered, her hands were fidgeting with a loose piece of fabric on her backpack that hung off her shoulders.

Monte nodded and flashed Sally a small smile. She gestured at the chair on the other side if the table door Sally to sit on.

Lena thought that Sally wanted to talk to Monte in private so she asked, "Do you want me to... Leave the room for a bit, Sally?" She put on her most sympathetic smile towards the teenager. She knew that Sally had tried to kiss Monte before but she tried to push that fact aside.

"No... It's okay." Sally answered as she stepped inside the room and walked over to the chair monte had signed her to sit in. As she sat down her hair moved out of her face, earning a gasp from both older woman sitting across the table from her.

Sally's face looked like she had been through a war. Both of her eyes were beaten black and her lip was busted open in two different places. There was a Band-Aid on the side if her chin that wasn't even big enough to completely cover up the nasty wound that was under it. Someone had seriously beaten Sally up!

Lena was the first one to get up and make her way over to sally's side, followed soon my Monte.

"Oh, my goodness." Monte exclaimed, "Who did this to you, Sally?" She added, as she inspected Sally's face.

Sally gave no answer, in that moment, she had lost her voice. She had been immensely careful to avoid anyone at school seeing her face.

Before she left home that morning she had layered her face in a thick layer of concealer and foundation. It stung to run the dark purple lipstick over the wounds but, she needed to cover them up. In PE, She had even told the teacher that she couldn't participate because she had just gotten her period, in order to avoid wearing her PE shorts and her short sleeved gym shirt, it was bad enough that she had to hide her bruised face but, there was no way that she was going to be able to hide the bruises on her stomach, arms, legs and back.

Before she decided to go to Monte's office, she had washed off all her makeup. She had been standing in the bathroom, looking at herself for what seemed like an eternity, gathering courage and maybe also to get over the shame she felt.

She needed to tell someone what happened to her, and the only person that she trusted enough was her vice principal. Monte had been the only person that she could ever confide in ever since she started working at anchor beach. Before that stupid kiss, Monte had always been so nice to her, so caring and protective. When she spoke to Monte, she felt like she could tell her about anything without being judged and without having to choose her words extremely carefully before speaking. The kiss... That stupid, stupid kiss, had just been an outburst of all the trust and serenity and... Security that Sally felt around Monte. She didn't mean to but, it just happened.

 _Sally Benton was an excellent student, not only did she have straight A's but, she was also creative and so perfectly extroverted. To her, Sally was one of those rare students that she had high hopes for. She reminded her allot of herself when she had Sally's age. Usually, Sally would come to Monte's office just before the school day ended and talk to her about how her day went and about how she was keeping her grades up. Monte would sit and listen and pay genuine attention when the teenager spoke._

 _That day, the signature three knocks sounded on Monte's office door and a small smile appeared on her face._

 _"Come in Sally." She called, before she saw her door open and Sally stepping inside her office._

 _Sally was wearing a denim skirt with ruffles at the bottom of it and a green top, her long curly hair was drooping next to her face._

 _"Hi miss Porter! How are you?" Sally cheerfully said as she closed the door behind her and walked over to the chair next to Monte's desk and sat down._

 _"I'm great! How did your Math test go today?" The older woman spoke._

 _Sally didn't say anything, she just scrunched her face and shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she had no idea but she was pretty sure she screwed it up._

 _Monte flashed her a look that said 'really?' She had been having such high hopes for sally with this math test, it was going to be a big portion of her end grade. Of course, she could re do it but, this was unusual for Sally._

 _"Ahw, what happened, Sal?" Monte said in a mother like voice as she got closer to the teenager._

 _"I don't know, I was so busy with my science project that I barely had time to study for it, I guess..." Sally muttered in a defeated voice. Lately her grades had been slipping quite a bit and her parents were definitely not happy with it._

 _Before Monte could speak, Sally remembered something and her defeated voice was replaced by an enthusiastic one._

 _"Oh! I made an appointment at the Garden store to talk about getting the Materials for the community outreach program donated! Do you maybe... Want to go with me, I know you're a real business woman so, you can be way more persuasive than me!"_

 _Sally was chairwoman of the student board and their project for that semester was a to start community garden. She thought it was a good idea to double the project and also use it as her senior thesis. When she presented the idea to Monte and Lena, Lena had told her that since the school funded the student boards project she couldn't use it as her senior thesis project because the school wasn't allowed to pay for personal projects. Monte suggested that Sally could get the Tools donated._

 _"Sure, when is it?" Monte asked as she started packing her bag. The school bell had rang, meaning the school day was over and it was finally time to go home._

 _Sally scrunched her face up again, "In about half an hour actually." She said, hoping Monte would have time to come with her._

 _"Oh-kay, yeah if we leave now we will make it on time." Monte said. She didn't mind at all to help Students outside school hours. She wanted the best for all of them and of that meant that she had to do a little work. The fact that Sally was her favorite student made her mind even less._

 _Monte was done packing her bag and offered Sally to drive her to the Garden shop and then drive her home. Sally gracefully accepted and the two walked out of the building and to Monte's car._ _  
As they walked through the halls they walked into Lena. Sally had heard the many rumors about Miss porter and Mrs. Adams-Foster having a romantic relationship but, she was close friends with Marianna who had assured her that there was nothing going on between the two._

 _"Hello Lena!" Monte exclaimed, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. They had recently started their... Thing, and they were being extra careful not to drop any hints._

 _"Hey, Monte, I was just on my way to your office." Lena said, smiling quickly at Sally._

 _"Oh... For the... Thing? I was just leaving... Sally here has made an appointment with the Garden shop for the community outreach project"_

 _"Oh yeah... Is that going alright?" Lena asked Sally._

 _"It's going pretty good, now all I need is the shop to sponsor the tools!" She answered with a smile on her face._

 _Sally had noticed the look that Monte and Lena had shared before they continued walking towards the car. It was a side eyed look that she never saw from Monte before. She shook it of, it must have been nothing. Miss Adams-Foster was married anyways._

 _They got into Monte's SUV and drove to the Garden shop. Monte had offered that they could stop on the way and she would buy them milkshakes a few blocks from the garden shop. They sat for a few minutes and talked about what they would say to the manager of the Garden shop. Sally was lactose intolerant so she just had a smoothie._

 _The way Monte spoke to her, in such a friendly and positive way made Sally feel respected by the older woman. She actually almost treated her like an adult and Sally appreciated that very much._

 _They got back in Monte's car and drove the few blocks to the Garden shop. Before they went inside, monte reassured Sally that she 'had this'._

 _"Good afternoon, I'm John Petwick. I'm the manager! What can I help you with?" The short man said as he gestured to two chairs for them to sit on in his office._

 _Sally started explaining about the student board's community outreach project that she had thought of and that she wanted to use it as her senior thesis. She added that she couldn't do the latter if she didn't get the gardening tools donated. She explained what tools she needed and how many._

 _The man sat back in in his chair and put on a thinking face. He looked from Monte to Sally and then back to Monte._

 _"I don't know, next thing you know I'll have ten more people asking for free supplies..." He trailed off, not wanting to hurt Sally's feelings._

 _Monte thought for a minute before saying; "and what you don't donate but, sponsor... Sally could hand out flyers from your store in the school and at the community garden in return for the tools."_

 _The man thought a little and asked a few more questions about the project before agreeing to sponsor Sally the tools for the community garden._

 _The teenager was beyond happy but she managed to contain her excitement until she and monte were in the car._

 _"AAAH! Yes! Oh my god! You did it! Thank you so much!" Sally cheered as she fastened her seatbelt._

 _"No, don't thank me! That was all you in there! You're going to a very successful business woman one day, Sally. You're truly amazing..." Monte told her._

 _Sally smiled at her and then leaned in for a hug, which Monte accepted._

 _When monte pulled back from the hug, Sally suddenly put her hand on the back of Monte's neck and pulled her face towards her own. before Monte could register what was happening, Sally placed her lips on her own._

 _The second Monte felt Sally press her lips against her own she pushed her away and gave her a stern look._

 _"Don't you ever even think about doing that again, Sally!" Monte fired at the teenager. She was in a state of shock mixed with anger and confusion. She never gave Sally any signs that it was okay for her to do that. She hadn't been flirtatious towards the girl at all... Because she was a CHILD... What made her do this?_

 _Shelly herself was also a little shocked at the kiss, "I'm sorry, Miss porter! I didn't mean to do that, I swear!" Sally had no idea why she had done it. Of course Monte was a very attractive woman and lately Sally had been struggling with her sexuality. But, she saw Monte like a mentor, someone to look up to and someone to be an example for her. The kiss must have been an outburst of excitement and maybe a way to show her gratitude towards the older woman. It had been like a reflex, and she had never even dreamed of doing something like with a teacher or principle._

 _Monte didn't answer her. She just started the car and drove Sally home. The whole car ride had been silent. No music. No talking. Just the occasional sigh coming from Monte._

 _A small "thank you, Miss Porter..." Escaped Sally's mouth after they arrived at her house and she got out if the car._

 _It took Monte a few seconds to find the words; " you're welcome, Sally." After that she rushed off._

 _She and Lena had dinner that night, Lena had told her wife that she was at an extended board meeting. Monte decided to not tell Lena or anyone in fact about the fact that Sally had tried to kiss her. She thought that there was no reason to make the girl feel more ashamed than she already was. Also, Monte didn't need more drama in her life right now, her job, her recent divorce and her affair with Lena... Were all dramatic enough. She didn't want to deal with something like this too._

 _The next day Monte went to work and even ran into Sally when she arrived, the two didn't say anything to each other but Monte could see the shame in Sally's teenage eyes. Everything seemed normal, but after a few hours at work the next day she received a text message from Lena saying; MONTE DID YOU KISS A STUDENT?!_

 _Sally had said to Lena that Monte kissed her. She had been scared that if Monte would tell anyone about it first, it could jeopardize her whole school career and her parents would kill her if that happened._

 _Soon after that, there was a small war going on between Monte and Sally's parents. Sally's parents of course believed Sally's lie and they wanted Monte to get fired. The final meeting ended with the school board believing Monte's side of the story._

 _Of course, Sally didn't visit Monte in her office anymore, they had no more conversations. If Sally needed some information from the principal's office, she would go and ask Lena in order to avoid Monte. Sally, the straight A student even started slacking in school._

 _Things weren't the same anymore._

Sally hadn't answered Monte's question. She just sat there and let the women inspect her face. Tears started forming in her eyes and she fought hard to keep them from rolling down her face, she had to be strong.

"Sally, please answer me. Who did this to you, sweetie?" Lena asked, as she placed her hand on top of Sally's in her lap, connecting with her.

Sally finally looked up and into Lena's eyes. "I... My mom and dad!" She blurted out followed by a long sob. Her tears finally leaving her eyes and now uncontrollably streaming down her face.

Monte and Lena were both stunned, they looked at each other. They knew that Sally's parents were strict and could sometimes expect too much from her but, they never thought that they would harm her like this. Sally's face was beaten and bruised in all places, this was inhumane!

"Why did they do this to you?" Monte asked, her eyebrows furrowed together, curiously. She needed to get to the bottom of this.

Sally wiped her nose with the sleeve of her vest before answering, "They saw my text messages. They got so angry! I mean they beat me all the time... But, this time it just seemed like they wouldn't stop. They just went on, and on, and on, and ON!" Sally sobbed.

Monte rubbed circles on Sally's back to try and calm her down a little.

"I'm so sorry that I kissed you! It was really stupid and it didn't mean anything." Sally blurted out to Monte all of the sudden.

Monte looked at Lena for a second, this was the first time Sally had admitted to Kissing Monte first. But right now, Monte didn't even care about that.

"It's alright, Sweetie... You don't have to apologize. It was an accident. What's important right now is that you tell us precisely what happened to you, okay?" Monte half whispered to the teenager.

Sally inhaled deeply before speaking, "They always beat me, when I stay out to late, when I get anything but an A on a test, when I don't do my chores the right way. But this time, I accidentally left my phone unlocked on my bed and by mom..." She paused. Lena handed her a tissue before she continued, "I was talking to this girl... That I met on a dating site and... I was stupid enough to not delete my messages right away. My mom found the texts and she showed my dad and they were so angry!" She said.

Lena and Monte could see that she was struggling with whatever she wanted to say next so they waited patiently until she had gathered the strength to continue talking.

"They called me horrible names while they beat me! They used everything they could find, belts, shoes, frying pans, fists... They just wouldn't stop!" Sally took off her vest, revealing what seemed like tens of Marks and bruises on her arms and shoulders.

"Oh my god, Sally." Lena breathed out in pure surprise. She had never seen bruises like this on ANYONE before.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you, Sally. I really am." Monte said, trying to keep her own tears at bay. Here was that smart, strong girl that reminded her so much of herself. Bruised and battered.

"It's... I'm going to be okay." Sally said, "Right?" She asked right after her statement.

"Of Course, you are, I promise." Monte said as she wrapped her arms around Sally, comforting her.

After Sally was somewhat calmed down Lena offered to get her some tea and she asked Monte to help her get it. This gave them a chance to discuss what they were going to do. Sally would wait in Monte's office until they came back with her tea.

Once they arrived in the teachers' room monte started, "what are we going to do? We can't send her back to her parents!" She said.

Lena was obviously more updated about situations like this. Having fostered four children before, she knew what to do.

"We have to call the police, they will most likely arrest Mr. and Mrs. Benton as soon as they see Sally's condition. Then they will contact child protective services and... See if Sally has any family with whom she can stay." She explained carefully to Monte.

Monte was cooking water for Sally's tea as she listened to Lena explain what would happen to Sally after they would call the police. Even though she knew that sally getting mistreated by her parents wasn't her fault, she couldn't get over the faint feeling of guilt. She wished that she had assured Sally after the kiss that everything was alright and that she wasn't going to get in trouble. Maybe then the connection between them wouldn't have been watered down and Sally would have opened up to her more. Maybe then all of this could have been stopped much earlier.

Lena saw that Monte was not totally present, "Babe, what are thinking?" She asked, stepping closer to her, looking into her eyes and tucking a strand of Monte's hair behind her ear.

"I just feel like I could have... Maybe noticed this before, you know... That girl used to come to my office every day and just, talked." She answered, the regret hearable in her voice.

"Honey, there is no way you would have noticed that this was going on with her. Just be happy that we can help her now, before it gets worse." Lena said.

Lena looked around in the teachers' room to check once more if there was nobody else there before leaning in and placing her lips on Monte's. By now everyone knew about their relationship but, they wanted to keep things professional when they were at work.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go bring her the tea." Monte said before Pecking her fiancé on the lips one more time before they made their way back to her office where Sally was waiting on them.

They explained to the teenager that they were going to call the police. At first Sally was scared that somehow, she would end up back at her parents' house and they would hurt her even more. Lena assured her that that was against the law and that she personally would make sure that wouldn't occur.

Monte called the police to send someone to come to the school for a case of severe mistreatment of a child. About half an hour later, there was a knock-on Monte's office door.

"Come in!" Monte hollered to the person on the other side.

The door opened and for the second time that day the last person they would expect to come through Monte's office door made her way inside.

"Stef?" Lena said.

"I was called in about a harassment case involving a minor." Stef said as she stepped closer to Sally.

Lena and Stef had kind of swept the kiss they shared three months ago, during Monte's coma under the rug. After Monte got back from the hospital, things went back to 'normal' between them. They had spoken about it and had concluded that it would be best for everyone that something like that could never again. Regardless of their feeling.

Now that their divorce was finalized and Lena was engaged to Monte, Lena was going to make sure that there was no way that something like that could happen again. Everyone was just getting more and more used to this new routine in their life and there was no way she was going to stir everything around now. She wouldn't sit next to Stef during their weekly dinner with the kids, she would make sure that she didn't touch her on purpose. SHE was the one that had started the kiss, SHE was the one that started roaming her hands all over Stef… she was ashamed of herself because SHE was the one that left Stef and now SHE was the one making moves on her while she was with someone else. No matter how good it felt and no matter what she still felt for Stef, IT WAS WRONG! She LOVED monte and she wanted nothing more than to be happy with her and get married to her. The whole thing was ridiculous and she was going to make sure Monte would never find out and it would never happen again.

Stef had thought about the kiss allot too after it happened. They had shared many kisses before but, it had been almost a year before their lips touched that night. The only reason Stef had pulled away and ended the kiss was Monte. Stef of course didn't want to stop, she could have easily let things get much further but, she ended it when she did because it had nearly killed her when Lena had cheated on her and she didn't want anyone else to feel like she did. She couldn't deny that she still had feelings for Lena and she knew that Lena felt it too but, there was no way that she could intentionally put someone in the position she had been in. Also, Lena hadn't been in her right mind at that moment, Stef didn't want her to regret anything afterwards.

Right now, what she needed to do was make sure that justice was going to be served for the young woman sitting on the couch in front of them.

"Sally, can you tell me what happened to you?" Stef said after she had sat down next to the girl. She had pulled her notepad out to make sure that she wrote down all the little details Sally gave her. Stef had always hated working on cases like this. Cases involving helpless children and teenagers who were abused by the people that were supposed to love them and care for them the best way they could.

Sally explained what her parents did to her to Stef while Monte and Lena sat across from them on two chairs. Occasionally handing the teenager a tissue to wipe her tears.

"Do you have anyone that you can stay with? Any family that lives in town?" Stef asked as she put her notepad down on the table.

Sally thought for a minute before answering, "No… My mom is an only child and My dad hasn't spoken to his family in ages, I don't even know where they live." She shifted a little, it suddenly struck to her that she had no one to take care of her than her mom and dad. She had nowhere to go, they would probably place her in a group home or something like that. Suddenly, she was starting to regret that she had come to Monte's office.

"Okay…." Stef started, before she was cut off by Sally's voice over her own.

"I have nowhere to go… Where am I going to stay? Who will pay for my education? What if I have to go to another school? Do I have to go stay with strangers?" Sally started rambling out all kinds of questions as tears started to form in her eyes again.

Monte walked over to Sally and sat down next to her.

"I promise it's all going to be okay, Sally... " Monte said as she rubbed the teenagers shoulder for comfort, without much success.

A few minutes later, Stef asked Monte and Lena to follow her outside so she could explain what was going to happen next.

"For now, I will send units over to her parents to arrest them… Hopefully they'll confess to the abuse…" Stef started, "If Sally really doesn't have any family, she will stay with a foster family and until we find her a home, she's probably going to stay in a group home or a center for abuse woman and children."

As Stef explained more, Monte looked at the bruised teenager that was sitting on her couch through the window of her office. She knew that placing Sally in a group home, where she knew nobody, would only make her feel worse. Sally was a shy and withdrawn child, being around only strangers in times like this would take a huge toll on her emotional wellbeing and she didn't deserve that. She deserved to know that there are people who care about her and that she wasn't 'just another case'.

"She can…stay with us." Monte said as she snapped out of her thought, "The house is big enough and she'll feel saver around people she knows." Her eyes traveled to those of her fiancé, questioning if she agreed with her.

Lena was a little dumb faulted at Monte's statement. Taking in a child was not just something that could be decided in a minute. She looked at Monte. She was going to disagree with her and tell her that it was best for Sally to just stay in a group home for now but, when she saw the pleading look on Monte's face she couldn't. She could see the genuine concern for the teenager burning in her fiancé's eyes. It was one of the things Lena loved most about her, her sympathy.

Lena sighed slightly before saying, "I guess It would be a less traumatic event if she stayed with us for a few days…." She said slowly, picking her words carefully, "Until she finds a nice foster family." She added, just to make sure that Monte wouldn't get in over her head, their lives were hectic enough now.

Monte's face lit up a little and she reached out her hand to squeeze Lena's arm as a small symbol of thankfulness. The two shared a small smile. If they weren't at school or Stef wasn't standing right there with them, the squeeze would have been a kiss. Monte was determined to save Sally's situation turning worse.

Stef looked at Lena and monte. It took less and less from her to see them together like this. Her feelings for Lena were still deep seated but, Monte wasn't being mean unkind to her and she was being nothing less than caring and softhearted towards the kids. In a way, she was slowly starting to see why Lena liked her. She was starting to see Monte as Less of an enemy to her happiness but more as a tool for Lena's happiness.

"Would it bring any problems if she stayed with us?" Monte turned to look at Stef.

Stef thought for a few seconds, it would only be for a few days, so there wouldn't be any need for a fostering permit or anything like that. "As far as I think, it should be fine." Stef said.

A few hours went by and the school bell rang once again. The school day was finally over.

Sally sat in the backseat of Monte's SUV and fastened her seatbelt, Monte had told her to get in the car first. She saw Monte and Lena discussing something a few feet from the car, they were probably speaking about her. All that she felt right now was defeat, she hated feeling like this, helpless and having her faith in the hands of others.

Lena and monte seemed done with talking and started walking towards the car. Monte started the car, and started pulling out of the school's parking lot.

"So, Sally…" Lena started as she turned around in her seat to look at the teenager in the back seat, "Is there anything that you're allergic to? We're going to stop at the supermarket to buy groceries for dinner."

"I- I can't have milk or milk products… But I don't want you to go out of your way for me, I don't want to be a bother." Sally answered shyly before she felt the car come to a stop. They had arrived at the supermarket.

As she unbuckled her seatbelt, Monte turned in her seat to face Sally like Lena had, "You are not bothering us, Sally." She said as she got out of the car and gestured for the teenager to get out of the car too.

The three strolled across the shopping isles and occasionally Lena or Monte would grab something off the shelves and put it in the cart that Sally had offered to push for them.

Suddenly, Monte stopped dead in her tracks in front of the cart, causing Sally to accidentally push her with it from behind.

"Ouch…" A small grunt escaped Monte's mouth but, she turned on her heels and started walking the opposite way, her facial expression giving away that she was distraught by something.

Lena was confused, "What's wrong?" she asked.

Only seconds later she got an answer to her question.

"Well, what have we here! If it isn't the lovebirds of the century…" The dark-haired woman in front of them spoke with thick sarcasm in her voice

"Jenna, can we just not… do this." Monte sighed. **(A/N: I always fucking hated Jenna…)** There was so much on their minds already, the last thing they needed right now was her ex-girlfriend throwing sarcastic comments about her relationship with Lena at her in the middle of the supermarket. The fact that Sally was there made it even worse.

Jenna paid no attention to what monte asked and turned her gaze towards Lena.

"Hi, Jenna." Lena said. After she moved out, she had never heard or seen Jenna. She knew that Jenna had been hurt by the whole ordeal too but, she never got the chance to speak to her about it.

"I'm surprised to see you alive and breathing, Monte. Last thing I heard you were in a coma." Jenna shot at her ex-lover.

Monte didn't answer. She wanted to sink into the ground. This was the most degrading and AWKWARD moment of her life. She never though that she would see Jenna again after they broke up.

"Jenna, there is no need to be rude, we're all adults here." Lena said in a professional tone. The tone she used to speak to her students and the tone she used when she was disciplining her children.

Jenna once again completely ignored what was told to her and carried on speaking; "You must have been heartbroken, Lena…" She said, her words practically spitting fire at the curly haired woman, "Heartbroken people do the most… _Surprising_ … things. I hope you had enough support during all of it. You did, right?" Jenna's voice was mocking, as if she was explaining something to a three-year-old child for the 10th time.

Lena's heart skipped a beat when those words left Jenna's mouth. She knew. She most definitely knew. Stef must have had told Jenna about what she had done… or had tried to do.

Lena's breathing fastened, she grabbed Monte's hand and led her past Jenna and into another isle. Leaving Jenna standing with a slight smirk on her face.

"We don't have to listen to her, everything she says is bull anyway!" Lena murmured to Monte as they walked. How could Stef had told Jenna of all people what had happened? She already felt HORRIBLE about it, now other people knew and she felt even more disgusted with herself. If she could turn back time she would never even knocked on Stef's door that night. She had worked so hard to build up her relationship with monte to where it was now, she wasn't going to let a mistake like that ruin everything they had.

Monte looked back and signaled Sally to come with them.

Sally tried to keep up with Lena's hasty pace with the shopping cart. What was that? Who was that woman and why did she know so much about Monte and Lena? Was she family? She sounded like someone you wouldn't want to mess with.

After grocery shopping, Monte and Lena stopped at a store to buy Sally new pajamas, a toothbrush and a few t-shirts for the following school days. Sally wasn't to go home and pick up her clothes for another few days. Stef had texted Lena that both parents had been arrested and were now being questioned about the abuse of their daughter.

Sally like Monte and Lena's house. It was very different from the house she shared with her parents, it was calm, it was silent and most of all if was safe. Nobody that would walk inside the room and start hitting her, nobody that would call her names. Just a house. It was big and its interior was modern, contemporary. Not much color, allot of black and white but, in some way it still looked pretty cozy. Even if it was just for a few days, it felt… normal, something that she always had to pretend her family was.

For dinner Lena had cooked spaghetti with Salad on the side. During the dinner, there was allot of talking, Monte and Lena tried to act as normal as possible. Talking about Sally's school prestations, her favorite sports and other stuff to keep her mind off the whole situation with her parents. Sally hadn't asked about the woman they ran into in the supermarket and Monte and Lena didn't seem to be bothered by it anymore.

After dinner Sally helped wash the few dishes they had and then worked on her Homework. Just as she was done with her homework and closed her textbook, she heard a familiar voice sounding from behind her.

"Sally?" Marianna said in surprise, she just came home from having dinner at Stef's. After school, she had texted Lena that she wouldn't be home until after dinner.

Sally's stomach dropped, during the whole ordeal she had almost forgotten that Marianna lived with Monte now too, how would she explain this to her? _'Hey Mari, my mom and dad beat me up and now I am staying at your house, since your mom and her girlfriend are the heads of our school and I have nowhere else to go!'_ That sounded ridicules, even in her head… but, that was basically what was going on. She felt vulnerable. Marianna had a privileged live with parents who loved her while Sally was just there, as a victim in need of shelter. There was no way that Marianna wasn't going to look down on her after this.

"Hi, Mari…" the curly haired teen answered awkwardly as she got up from the chair she was sitting on and turned to face her friend, clutching her textbook awkwardly in her hand.

It was then that Marianna saw Sally's Injured face and gasped, "Oh my god! What happened to you?" She managed to utter as she walked closer to the other girl to inspect her face. There were bruises and cuts all over it.

Sally couldn't find any words to answer Mariana with, she hadn't even properly processed everything that had happened the past 24 hours herself. She just stood there, looking at the ground, not even able to look Marianna in the eyes.

Right at that moment, Lena walked into the kitchen, "Hey miss thang, you just got home?" She asked. She wondered if Sally had already told her about her situation and that she was staying with them for a while.

Marianna smiled at her mother, "Yeah, I stayed a little longer at mom's…. Aunt Jenna was there" She said before slightly gesturing towards Sally with a questioning look.

Lena shifted uncomfortably on her feet. She just hoped Jenna wouldn't drop hints to the kids, that would screw everything up. She knew that Stef wouldn't let something like that happen but, Jenna had always been a little theatrical and she could easily let something slip out of her mouth.

"Momma?" Marianna's voice shook Lena from her thoughts.

Sally grabbed the rest of her things and slipped passed Marianna and Lena, "I uhm, I'm going to see if Monte can help me with this homework assignment… it's uh… kind of tricky." She lied, she didn't want to see the pity in Marianna's eyes as her mother told her why she was at their house.

Lena smiled at Sally and then turned back to her daughter, "Uh, Sally had some trouble at home and she will be staying with us for a few days until things get sorted out… Now, I don't want you to ask Sally all kinds of questions about what happened okay? If she wants to tell you, she can but, please don't push past your boundaries. Understood?"

Marianna nodded, "Okay, I won't, I promise… will she sleep in my room?" she asked.

Lena shook her head no. "No, honey. There are three guest bedrooms… why would she sleep in yours?"

Marianna shrugged her shoulders, "I wouldn't mind some company."

"I guess… It would be good for her to have s roommate. It can be scary for her, alone in a room in a new environment." Lena said after re-thinking how the situation must be for Sally.

Marianna left the room to go say hi to Monte and ask Sally is she wanted to stay with her in her room instead of a guest room.

Lena was left alone with her thoughts again. She played with the beautiful engagement ring that Monte had made for her. She had to tell Monte about what happened between Stef and her, before she found out via someone else. She and Stef had clearly agreed not to tell anyone but, knowing Stef, she told Jenna even before they agreed on that. Jenna and Stef had always been best friends and even during her marriage to Lena, Stef told Jenna almost everything. No matter how extra and sometimes even invading Lena thought Jenna was, she was Stef's best friend and therefore she learned how to accept her, the three of them went along just fine… until the affair of course.

Lena knew that Monte's trust towards her would drop dramatically when she would tell her. She would definitely get angry, or maybe even worse. She had chosen not to tell Monte about it, not because she had bad morals, not because she wanted to be devious and sneak around. But rather because she didn't want to see her Monte upset and because she was more than sure that something like this was never going to happen again. If it wasn't going to happen again, why would she burden her relationship over it? It was a moment of weakness.

Now, with the chance of Monte hearing about it from her ex-girlfriend, Lena believed that by telling Monte herself, it would maybe feel like less of a betrayal, less of a shocker. She would have the time to explain it, to try and clarify it. It wouldn't be easy and she didn't know what the outcome was going to be but, It was absolutely the right thing to do.

She would wait until Marianna and Sally were asleep. That way there was no chance of them overhearing any of it.

Hours went by and just as Marianna was about to shut down her nightlight, the bedroom door clicked open slightly. The wooden door making a creaking sound, making Marianna sit up straight in her bed again.

"Can I come in for a sec?" Monte's voice sounded before her head peeked inside the bedroom, she saw Sally on the sleeping couch on the other side of Marianna's room, already fast asleep.

Marianna smiled at her and nodded, since Monte woke up from the coma, she and Marianna had gotten a little closer.

Monte walked inside the room and sat next to Marianna in the bed.

"How are you? I didn't get a chance to talk to you allot lately… work is kind of talking a toll on my private time." The older woman said as she got a little more comfortable in the bed.

Marianna's facial expression saddened slightly before becoming normal again, "I'm fine…" She said, "Just allot on my mind right now."

"like what?" by now, Monte knew the teenager well enough to know when something was bothering her.

"Well… promise not to tell mama?" She asked, looking at her mother's fiancée with pleading eyes.

Monte nodded and signaled for Marianna to continue.

"So, you know that Ana, my birth mom is pregnant, right?", She started, "Well… I went to go see her and… she's going to give the baby up for adoption, she already found a family and they have agreed to take the baby." She added.

Monte took a few seconds to let the information sink in, she didn't remember Lena giving Marianna permission to go see Ana, that was probably why. "And how do you feel about that?" She asked.

"I.. I feel bad. I mean, that baby is going to be my brother or sister. Shouldn't he or she know me… and Jesus and… I don't know, I would want to know my family. It just feels wrong." Marianna said as slight tears were starting to form in her eyes.

"Oh, Mari." Monte put on an understanding look. She understood that this must have been very hard for the teenager. She looked over at Sally to make sure the teenager was still asleep before continuing. "You know, I have been pregnant twice…"

Marianna's mouth fell open in surprise as she flashed monte a look of disbelieve. "Really?"

The older woman nodded before continuing, "The second time was when I was married to my ex-husband, right before I moved to San Diego. I was only three and a half months' along when I miscarried. I will never get a chance to know that baby" She said before being silent for a few seconds, thinking back at the pain she had felt back then.

"Oh, I didn't know that…. I'm sorry for your loss." Marianna said as she looked up at monte with genuine sympathy in her eyes.

"thank you…." She answered, "Now the first time, I was 19 years old. I was in college, somewhere near the end of my first year. I found out that I was pregnant. A few months later I was 'that girl' pregnant in college. At least I couldn't handle the pressure and I dropped out of law school and had the baby. A girl, she was so tiny but she was healthy…" She paused, running a hand through her hair as she recalled the period of time in her life that she would never forget.

"What happened to her?" Marianna asked carefully, trying not to sound too eager to know.

"I gave her up for adoption and re-started my education at Yale." She said, "I knew that my family would love to meet her some day and I bet she wonders who her birth mom is and if she has any siblings… After her 18th birthday she has the option to visit me and get to know her birth family. So, you see… if that baby that Ana is carrying is ANYWHERE as curious as his or her sister, Marianna…. Eventually, in a few years you will get the chance to meet and you will be able to maybe build a bond.

Marianna was silent for a while. And for a while they just sat there. Monte letting her mind wander all over the place and Marianna Just letting what Monte had told her sink in.

"Thank you." The young Latina said eventually.

Monte didn't say anything, instead she placed a small kiss on the side Marianna's head before getting off the bed.

"Goodnight, Mari. Dormir bien." She said before closing the bedroom door and making her way out of the room.

Monte went to the bedroom that she shared with her fiancé to find it empty, meaning Lena was still downstairs. After revisiting those periods of her life, she needed to calm herself down a little. She needed something to get her mind to something else, to make her feel better. She needed something to distract her, or better said, someone. And that someone was Lena.

She quickly changed out of her pajama's and put on the white, sheer babydoll nighty set, she had bought a few days before the shooting. She was going to put it on for Lena the day she proposed but of course never really got the chance to. The flashy white color looked incredibly vibrant against her olive skin. She looked at herself in the mirror once more before covering herself with a white satin Kimono.

Being as silent as possible she went over to Marianna's room to check one last time if both girls were asleep before making her way downstairs where she knew Lena was.

Monte let out a small sigh of pure adoration as she walked into the living room where her fiancée was seated on the comfortable couch, with a steaming hot cup of tea. Her curly hair was up in a big bun and she was on her laptop, probably working or doing research for the school. It was in these little moments that Monte realized how much she loved this woman. The way she could just stare at her for the longest time, just admirering her beauty, her pureness and her… everything. Yes, she loved everything about Lena and she couldn't wait to see what the future would bring them.

She made her way over to the couch and stood in front of Lena who was still typing away on the laptop that was on her lap. She faked a cough to get Lena's attention.

"Oh, hey baby…" Lena said looking up at Monte.

"Whatya doing?" Monte asked with a sing song tone in her voice.

"Just some work, I'm trying to type out all the settings for the semester meetings…" She fell silent as she thought about what she had planned to tell monte that evening.

"Yeah?" Monte whispered sexily as she started fidgeting with the string belt of her kimono.

"I wanted to talk to…" Lena's words got stuck in her throat as Monte dropped the kimono of her shoulders and revealed the baby doll that was underneath it. She looked so hot.

Monte had put that on for her, to be with her. How could she ruin the moment now by telling her what happened with Stef two months ago? No, right now was not the right time, right now it was time to be together. Like they were supposed to be.

"Well, I don't want to talk at all… I just want you." She seductively purred as she pulled her hair from the bun it had been in all day and shook her long hair loose. She removed the laptop from Lena's lap and replaced it with herself as she straddled the curly haired woman in front of her.

Lena's hand automatically moved to Monte's hips, squeezing them, enjoying how the soft flesh molded itself against her hands. Monte leaned in and placed her lips, gently against Lena's before opening up into a sweet and wet kiss.

 _ ***WARNING SMUT**_ _ **AHEAD***_

Lena kissed her fiancée tenderly, gently, tasting her lips and breathing in her sweet scent. And Monte kissed back, closing her eyes and moaning softly as Lena started to run her fingers through her long silky hair.

"Are you… allowed yet?" Lena asked as she pulled away briefly. The doctor had advised Monte to not engage in any sexual activity for at least six weeks. Eight weeks had already passed and this was the first time they had been this intimate with each other since after the coma.

Monte laughed slightly, and kissed Lena briefly again, "I don't really care right now" She whispered and leaned down to capture Lena's lips again. running her fingers through her soft curls, caressing her cheek, her neck, nibbling gently on her lips.

Lena slipped a cool hand up under the top half of the babydoll, she cupped Monte's handful-sized breasts in her palms, feeling the perkiness and softness of the mounds and the stiffness of her nipples through the thin material of the babydoll, earning a moan from Monte.

"Jesus Christ, it's been so long." The half Latina moaned louder as Lena slipped the babydoll of her shoulders and took her hard nipples between her fingers and thumbs and began to squeeze them.

In response, Monte put her hand between them and started rubbing Lena trough the material of her pajama pants.

"God, yeah… Right there, Monte." Lena groaned as Monte's fingers met with the already damp fabric.

Lena started kissing her way around Monte's breasts, she took her nipples into her hot mouth, causing Monte's moaning changed tone, growing higher in pitch, more breathless, more urgent and slightly louder.

 _ ***END OF SMUT***_

Just as Monte was about to put her hand inside Lena's pajama pants they heard footsteps stomp down the main stairs down the hall.

Monte quickly got of Lena and searched for her Kimono that she had thrown on the floor minutes ago and hurried to put it on again. Lena picked up her laptop and placed it on her lap, to make it look like they had been working.

"Uhm, Momma? Monte?" Marianna called, trying to locate where in the house the two adults were. She had already gone to their bedroom and found it empty so they had to be somewhere downstairs.

Lena cleared her throat, trying to get the haze out, "Were in here, Sweetie!" She hollered before pecking Monte once more on the lips and flashing her a naughty smile.

Marianna made her way to the couch and stood next to it with a lost look on her face.

"What's wrong, baby? Are you having trouble sleeping again? Did you have a nightmare? Are you okay?" Lena got up from the couch out of concern for her daughter.

Marianna shook her head no. "I'm fine… I think Sally is having a nightmare… I didn't know if I should wake her up or... If I should just let her sleep." She uttered hesitantly.

Monte also got up from the couch, "Okay, let's check on her then." She spoke.

As they walked up the main stairs they could already hear Sally's voice whimpering and groaning in an agonizing manner from the room she shared with Marianna that night.

They walked into the room and found Sally trashing from side to side in the bed, her skin covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Lena and Monte rushed to the side of the bed and started trying to wake her up.

"Sally, sweetie? Wake up…" Lena said as she put both of her hands on the sleeping girl's shoulders to get her to stop twisting and turning.

Suddenly Sally shot up, breathing hard as she looked around, a confused look on her face. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was and what was going on.

"Sweetie, you were trashing around and you sounded like you were having a really bad dream." Monte said as her eyes caught Sally's wide ones.

Sally took a few seconds to regain herself before speaking; "I'm sorry, it was…." She didn't finish her sentence, not sure about how it would sound. Also, with Marianna in the room, she didn't want to sound pathetic.

Marianna noticed Sally's eyes shifting towards her quickly before looking away. She still didn't know what happened to Sally or why exactly she was here. She had followed her mother's orders to not be to nosey. Looking at the bruises on her face and arms, it must be very serious.

"Uhm, I'll wait in you guys' room until you're done, okay?" She said before disappearing into the hallway.

Lena noticed the sudden halt in Sally's previous sentence and asked, "What's wrong? What were you dreaming about that had you so…panicked? It's okay, you can tell us…" She added.

"I… I'm just worried about what's going to happen I guess… I had a dream about being… uhm." She paused, trying to figure out a way to say what she was about to say, "I had a dream about having to live in some group home with all kinds of people who beat me and… like my mom and dad do… and it was just… horrible."

"Oh, Sally. We would never let you end up somewhere like that. We're going to make absolutely sure that you are placed somewhere safe and nonviolent. I promise" Monte sat next to sally on the bed-couch, she saw Sally visibly jolted when she did so. As if she was… frightened of her in a way.

Monte frowned, "What's wrong? Do you think I'm going to hurt you? You know I would never do anything like that, right?"

"No, I'm not… I'm just. I'm sorry." Sally expressed with defeated eyes.

Now Monte was confused, "Why are you sorry? She asked.

"I'm so sorry that I kissed you, I didn't mean it and it ruined everything! I really, really regret it and I feel horrible about it… And now I just feel awkward being in your house and…" Sally rolled her eyes and shook her head at herself. Tears started to fall from her eyes.

Monte looked at Lena in surprise, she didn't expect Sally to bring that up again. The whole ordeal had happened so long ago. And yes, it had caused some trouble in allot of aspects but, it was behind them now. It had been a mistake and now that Monte knows the true nature of Sally's parent, she understands why the teenager lied about it to them.

"I'll leave you two alone for a minute…" Lena said as she turned to walk out of the room, she knew that Sally would feel much more comfortable talking to Monte about this if she wasn't in the room., "Goodnight Sally. Just holler if you need anything okay, sweets?" She told the teenager before leaving the room.

"Hey… Sal, It's okay. It was just a… mistake. Mistakes happen, it's all worked out, right? You didn't ruin anything, I promise! I still think of you the same as I did before it happened. Okay?" Monte said as she scooted closer to the teenager, she felt such sympathy towards her.

"Can I hug you?" Monte asked while holding open her arms for the girl.

Sally smiled slightly, "Okay… and I promise I won't kiss you this time!" She joked making the both of them laugh as she accepted the hug. After months, she finally felt safe again.

After the hug, Monte got up from the couch-bed, "Now, I think it's time for you to go back to sleep young lady. Tomorrow's a school day!" she said before walking out of the room.

"Sleep tight, Sal." She whispered before leaving the room completely. She made her way to the bedroom she shared with Lena and what she found there Melted her heart.

Marianna and Lena asleep on the bed, Marianna's head resting on her mother's chest with one arm holding on to her as both of Lena's arms were wrapped around her in the most adorable, protective manner.

She silently went to the bathroom to change out of the babydoll and into her regular pajama's. When she was done, she went over to the bed, and got in on the other side of it next to Lena. The bed was big enough to have all three of them on it without it being a tight squeeze.

Just as she started to fall asleep, she heard a faint humming noise. When she snapped out of her daze, she understood that it was her phone buzzing. She got a text massage, who would text her at this hour? At was 1 AM for God's sake!

She picked up her phone from its place on the nightstand.

The text message was from am unsaved number, she looked at the number and thought hard, she recognized it but she didn't know exactly from where. She opened the message;

'How does it feel?' the message said.

Monte frowned, and typed back; 'Who is this? How does what feel?'

Not long after she got a response; 'How does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine, Monte?'

Monte reacted again; 'What do you mean?'

 **DUN DUN DUN….**

 **I will update soon! Please don't forget to leave me a REVIEW with what you though and if you have any suggestion. Are you on team Monte/Lena or team Stef/Lena? Reviews are gold, thanks!**


	10. Confused

**Hi! Yes, I am back another chapter! Thank you, guys so much for the REVIEWS! I still don't know what team I'm going to go with here… hmmmm hard decision to make! ANYWAYS! This is another long chapter and it's going to be a significant chapter for the rest of the story after this so please read it carefully! I had a lot of trouble writing the abuse scene… I never wrote one before and I must say that it was pretty overwhelming. So sorry if that part isn't that good :-(**

 **I understand that the whole monte/ Cortez part won't make allot of sense when you start reading it at first but, NO… you didn't miss anything, just keep reading till the end and it'll explain itself.**

 **BEFORE you start reading please remember that English isn't my first language so… please point out any annoying typo's so I can correct them for you. There will be a bit of smutty goodness in this chapter and as always it will be pointed out with** _ ***WARNING SMUT AHEAD***_ **and** _ ***END OF SMUT***_ **before and after the smutty part in bold and cursive.**

 **Take your time reading… it's another long chapter…**

 **Happy reading! Don't forget to REVIEW please!**

Stef opened her eyes but shut them again fast when the bright ling from the room shined right into them. She grunted, yet another day filled with work, bills and angry teenagers. She opened her eyes again, slowly this time to let them adjust to the brightness of the room before sitting up and stretching.

Before she could reach for to check her e-mails, her phone buzzed. A text message, from Lena. Her now ex-wife. It still send eerie child down her spine to hear the term, never in a million years would she have thought that she would be the ex-wife of someone other than Mike.

She took the phone from her nightstand and opened the text. 'why did you tell Jenna about what happened?' it read. It was from Lena.

Stef suddenly sat up straight and her heart began to pound as she remembered that night when she and Jenna had gone out last weekend.

" _Oh, come on Stef! Those kids will be fine, it's just one night and we'll have loads of fun. Maybe you'll meet someone nice…" Jenna said in a whiny tone. She had already tried to bring Stef out so many times since Lena moved out but the blonde never gave in._

" _I don't know… I don't really feel like going out today, Jenna. Plus, I already worked all day!" Stef spoke, trying to get Jenna to just drop the subject._

" _Well, then this should be the perfect opportunity for you to relax a little. Come on, we haven't been out for months! We used to go out every night in College, remember how much fun that was?" Jenna augmented. "You need to go out and have fun, Stef!"_

 _Stef rolled her eyes. She did remember all those drunken adventures she had shared with her best friend._

" _You know what… Maybe a few drinks wouldn't hurt!" Stef decided. Since her split with Lena all she had done was be miserable and pretend not to be in front of the kids._

 _Jenna's eyes lit up immediately and a wide grin appeared on her face, "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Watch out world, Jenna and Stef are back!" She cheered with triumph in her voice._

" _Hmmm, help me pick out something to wear?" Stef hollered as she started walking to the hallway to go upstairs and pick out an outfit._

 _Jenna did a typical little victory dance and followed Stef up the stairs into her bedroom._

 _About an hour later, both women were all freshened up and ready to go out. Stef was wearing something that she didn't even knew she still had hanging in her closet; A short black dress with fringes at the bottom, the dress was low cut, showing off quite a lot of her cleavage._

" _Okay, Kids… Remember, Brandon is in charge and I'll be back before 12! Call me if anything happens okay?" Stef said standing in front of the television to make sure she had the full attention of all her children._

" _Yes mom." They all said when Stef was done speaking. They were happy to see that their mom was finally getting over that 'dip' she had been in since so long. Lately she had seemed a little more on edge, they all figured it was work related stress since she was promoted to detective recently. All of them tried to help out as much as they could at home and they tried to stay out of trouble._

" _Okay babies, I love you! Sleep tight for later! I want all of you in bed before 11, tomorrows a school day!" She said as she walked towards the hallway where Jenna was already waiting for her. She received a bunch of 'love you too's from the living room before Jenna grabbed her hand and practically hauled her outside._

 _They went to a new bar that had just opened a few weeks ago. They sat at the bar and ordered shot after shot. Soon enough both of them were completely wasted and laughing about everything they talked about…_

" _Oh god yeah I remember when you met Lena for the first time! That was awful!" Stef giggled as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand to wipe off any residue from the shot she just drank._

" _Well, I just knew there was something fishy about her! I wonder how long it's going to take her to cheat on Monte!" Jenna faked an evil laugh before sighing the bartender to bring them a new round of shots._

 _Then she noticed Stef getting quiet. The bad kind of quiet where she looks down at her hands and chews on her bottom lip..._

" _Uh-Oh... What's wrong, Stef?" Jenna asked with a worried look on her face. The last time she saw Stef get quiet like this was when she told her that Lena moved out to go live with Monte._

" _I- I…. Okay it's a secret…" Stef slurred, the alcohol was really starting to take its toll on her._

 _Jenna nodded and leaned in to pay closer attention to what Stef was going to say._

" _Lena kissed me…" Stef whispered before wheezing out a laugh. The shots that she had taken somehow made everything seem funny now. But it was funny, right? All these months Lena had been telling her that they couldn't be together in any romantic way and then suddenly SHE kissed HER first… Hilarious._

 _Jenna's eyes grew wide, "WHAT? When?" She asked, trying to get Stef out of her drunken Laughter, wanting to hear the whole story._

 _Stef took a deep breath when she finished before answering, "A day before her FIANCEE woke up from her coma! But, don't worry I stopped her before anything steamy happened." She added, rolling her eyes and waving her hand as if saying 'whatever'_

Uhg. Of course, Jenna wouldn't keep her big mouth shut! How would Stef explain this to Lena, she had promised not to tell anyone. And they had agreed that something like that could never happen again. They were divorced for Christ sake. Lena was engaged to Monte, that's just the way it was.

Stef took her phone again and thought about what she should answer but, she had nothing. How did Lena find out anyways? Did she meet with Jenna? Does this mean that Monte knows? She sighed before throwing the covers off herself and finally getting bout of bed. She had a long day ahead of her.

She silently thanked the lord that all the kids were already off to school. This morning the last thing she wanted was to hear the constant chattering of her kids before she even got to drink her morning coffee. She usually loved it, being surrounded by her babies but, on days like today she appreciated being alone. Simple. Rest. Silence.

She had kept a big secret for about two weeks now. Not knowing how to tell the kids, or Lena or even her mom about it. After pouring herself some coffee, she went through her bag to search for the envelope that she had hidden in the bottom of it. The envelope that held the information about her appointment with Doctor Westbrook at the hospital that afternoon. She would get back the test results of her second mammogram. A second one, because the first one showed a suspicious bump in her left breast. The doctor had told her not to worry too much until they got back the results of the test. But, in fact, all she did was worry. Stupid bump. Stupid doctor. Stupid mammogram. She hated all of it.

She poured herself another cup of coffee and got ready for her morning shift at work.

STEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTE

Earlier that morning.

Monte shot up from into a sitting position. Another damn nightmare about the shooting.

She looked around her, the rest of the bed was empty, meaning that Marianna and Lena had already woken up. She calmed herself down by taking deep, even breaths. She reached over to grab her phone of the nightstand when she suddenly remembered, the phone, the text messages she had received at 1 AM.

Right at that moment, the bedroom door opened. Lena walked in.

"Hey babe, good morning! You're finally up!" Lena cheerfully hollered as she made her way over to the bed and climbed between the sheets and wrapped her arms around her fiancée. She felt Monte stiffen under her touch.

"What's wrong?" Lena asked.

Monte chewed on her bottom lip, "Uhm, nothing… I just had another bad dream." Monte half lied.

"Oh, do you want to talk about it?" Lena offered. It had been quite a few weeks since Monte last had a nightmare about the shooting. Usually it didn't take her very long to get over them but, Lena always asked if she wanted to talk about them, just in case Monte needed to.

"No, it wasn't that bad…" Monte said, trying to get Lena to talk about something else, "Not like Sally's yesterday, that was horrible. I feel so bad for her." She said, changing the subject before Lena could go into it any further. She wanted to ask her… but, she didn't know how.

"Yeah… but, she'll get over it, she's a strong girl." Lena said, trying to comfort Monte who was clearly very distraught about something.

Monte sighed deeply, "When is the court date? Do you think they'll just accept the charges…? I mean, no judge would place her back with those monsters, right?" Monte asked. She wanted what was best for Sally and that certainly wasn't being placed back with those two lousy excuses for parents.

Lena shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know… I haven't heard anything from Stef yet." She answered.

"But… what will happen to her when the judge puts them in jail? What will happen with Sally?" Monte asked.

Lena shook her head, "She's only 15, I don't think that they'll have another option than to put her in a foster home or in a group." She felt horrible about what happened to Sally. She knew how much it affected Monte but, she didn't see any use in sugar coating it.

"I just… want what's best for her. The poor girl has already been through so much." Monte asserted before leaning back down on the bef. She was starting to feel a huge headache coming up. Everything was just so messed up in her head right now. She wanted to confront Lena with the texts she had received the night before but, she didn't know how to start.

She didn't WANT to know how.

Lena had been thinking too, she had promised herself to come clean to Monte and tell her what happened with Stef. She wanted their relationship to be based on trust and honesty towards each other. Secrets were not something they did… they never kept secrets from each other and they knew everything about each other. No… Lena had to tell her.

Today. Right now.

They were both quiet, sensing that something was wrong with one another

Lena sighed and was the first one to speak, "Baby… I need to tell you something." She started, only to be interrupted by her daughter barging into the bedroom.

"Good morning, Monte!" Marianna hollered as she joined the two older women on the bed, "Momma, Sally and I already made you breakfast while you were sleeping." She added, with a broad smile on her face.

"Good morning to you too, Mari. Thank you! You're too sweet" Monte cheered, as she squeezed Marianna's cheek lovingly. It seemed like every day Monte felt more and more affection towards Marianna, she was starting to look at Marianna as more of a daughter figure rather than 'Lena's daughter who happens to live with them'. Of course, there were boundaries when it came to parenting the teenager and Monte of course understood that too.

"Yeah... remember that for when I need something, okay?" Marianna batted her eyes at Monte in a cartoon-ish way. After the talk that she had with Monte the night before, she felt like Monte was someone she could trust and talk to about certain things that she didn't want to tell her moms. She wasn't just her Mom's fiancée, she was… A friend.

Sally emerged from behind the door a few minutes later, a slight smile on her face as she entered the bedroom after Marianna did. "Good morning…" She shyly said, looking around hesitantly, not sure if she should enter the bedroom or not.

"Hey! Good morning, Sal… How are you feeling today?" Monte said, patting ion the bad. Signaling for the teenager to join them on it. She wanted Sally to feel comfortable while she was staying with them. She didn't want the teenager to feel like too much of an outsider.

Sally's smile got a little wider as she walked to the bed and sat down next to Marianna, "I'm… I'm feeling a little better… Thanks to you guys." She answered looking at all of them.

"I see the swelling in your face is going down a little too." Lena said before leaning forward to inspect Sally's face. She lightly touched the swollen spot where discoloration had formed under Sally's eye. It was covered with makeup but, if you looked closely, you could see exactly where the bruises were.

Sally flinched, "It's still kind of sensitive." She reminded, causing Lena to drop her hand back to her lap.

"Well, I'm just happy that you're feeling better." Monte remarked.

Marianna looked down at the time on her phone and gasped dramatically, "Okay We have to go… there is a student board meeting before school starts, we can't be late!" She got up from the bed.

"But… aren't I supposed to drive you to school today? Why are you leaving so early?" Monte questioned with a confused look on her face.

"Sally is going to drive me to school today in Momma's car! So, I guess you guys are going to ride to school together." Marianna spoke with a typical teenage tone in her voice.

"Oh? Okay…" Monte slowly uttered. She knew that Sally was old enough to drive but why couldn't Lena just drop them off?

"What? Momma insisted… And who would turn down a ride to school without you guys' old people music?" Marianna mocked with an 'evil smile' on her face.

"HEY! Did you just call me old?" Monte said, trying to sound offended, "Cause… I'm not… Not very old anyways." She added.

"Maaaybe… maybe not." The teenager replied, "Okay we really got to go…. Love you!" she said as she gave both older women a quick hug and exchanged 'love you's before walking out of the room.

Sally got up from the bed too and said a quick, "Bye Miss Porter, Bye Miss Adams- Foster." Before leaving the bedroom after Marianna.

"Bye Sally!" Lena called.

"Sal, drive safe please!" Monte hollered after her.

When the women heard the front door slam shut, they turned to each other and the silence fell again. It was a silence that can't be explained. They both knew that there was something wrong.

"Why did you let them take your car?" Monte asked.

"Because I needed… to be alone with you… cause, I need to uhm, tell you something." Lena tried saying without stumbling over her own words. She had no idea how she would explain this to Monte. How would she react? What would she say? What would she ask?

Before Lena could speak again Monte's phone buzzed loudly on the nightstand. Lena noticed the color draining from Monte's face when it did.

"Ah… Yeah, I have to tell you something too…" She said before releasing a deep sigh. "I got text messages from…"

She couldn't hold it in anymore.

Lena didn't let Monte finish as she blurted out; "I kissed Stef!", she didn't know when she would find the strength to do it again, so she just said it before she lost her courage. Lena instantly saw a change in Monte's face, it was a look that she hadn't seen before. A look that could only be described as pure pain.

Silence.

Monte's mouth fell open and she could feel her heart throbbing inside her chest so hard that she could hear it in her ears. She needed a minute to make sure that she heard Lena correctly. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to feel. She sat there and she felt like Lena had just just slapped in the face. Lena, her fiancée, had just told her that she KISSED another woman. And not just any other woman, her ex-wife, the mother of her five children, the woman they stabbed in the back when they started their romance.

"Say something, please." Lena choked out, trying to make eye contact with her fiancée but with no success, Monte's eyes remained focused on the bedsheets.

Another few seconds went by before Monte finally spoke, "When?" came out softly, the same painful emotion on her face.

The curly haired woman sighed deeply. How would she answer this? How would she explain that she kissed her ex-wife while Monte was in a coma, fighting for her life?

"I- I… A few months ago." Lena answered, trying to avoid telling her exactly when.

Slowly, Monte got up from the bed, "I need to get ready for work." She mumbled. She didn't have the energy nor the stamina to argue and yell at Lena. In fact, she didn't even feel angry yet, right now, all she felt was defeat.

Lena opened her mouth to speak, "Monte… wait, I want…"

But Monte cut her off mid-sentence as she turned around. "SHUT UP!" She half yelled, suddenly losing her temper.

Instantly, Lena's eyes got wide, Monte had never yelled at her before. Ever.

Monte took a few deep breaths as she stared to regain her tranquility and spoke again. "Please… We'll talk later, I promise. We need to get ready for work... Since we have to ride there together."

Lena could hear the broken tone in Monte's voice and it made her want to get on her knees and beg for forgiveness. She wanted to explain everything and talk it out but, she knew Monte well enough to not push her on this.

They both got ready for their day in silence.

They ate breakfast in silence.

And drove to work in silence.

When they arrived at the school, the were instantly met with Mister Lipnicki, the head of the school board. Apparently, there would be an emergency board meeting concerning two students who were caught being in the possession of fake ID's at school.

Great, just one more thing they could add to the never-ending list of problems at anchor beach. It seemed like after the shooting, there was a new issue with the students every week, causing the school board to get on Monte and Lena's ass all the time.

Lena always remembered the board meeting where Monte and herself finally came to the schoolboard about their relationship.

 _ **(A/N: This next flashback is not really important to the story but, I just felt like writing it for fun!)**_

" _Baby, are you sure we have to do this?" Monte questioned. She was beyond scared of what the consequences could be. The school halls had been echoing with rumors about the affair but, until now they had both denied it to any teacher or board member that had actually dared to ask them if it was true._

 _Lena stroked Monte's check with her thumb, "The kids know, Stef knows and it won't be long until they tell their friends…" Lena stated the obvious. Lena had already moved in with Monte and at this point none of her children were willing to talk to her yet, the scars of her betrayal still fresh. They had talked about it a few days before and they were both scared but, there was no way around it anymore. They had to tell the schoolboard about their relationship before things got out of hand._

 _Today there would be a basic meeting pre-semester meeting, where the board would discuss all the new budged plans, new student schedules and other changes that would take place in the new semester. They thought it was the best way to come clean to the whole board at once._

 _Once everyone entered the meeting room, Mister Lipnicki opened the meeting by greeting everyone and explaining the subjects of the meeting. During the whole meeting, Monte's right hand had been clutched to Lena's under the table._

 _Just before he closed the meeting, Mister Lipnicki asked everyone "Are there any questions or remarks about the new semester?"_

 _Lena gathered all her courage and lifted the hand that Monte wasn't holding. "I do!" She said, her heart throbbing hard from the nerves she was feeling._

 _Mister Lipnicki gestured at her to continue talking, "Yes, Mrs. Adams-Foster?" He stated._

 _There was a long pause, before Monte spoke up, "We're seeing each other." She chewed on her bottom lip, waiting for a response. Everyone in the room fell silent._

" _Pardon me? I don't think I understand." Mister Lipnicki said as he looked over the rim of his dark glasses with a confused look._

 _Lena took a deep breath. "Miss Porter and I are romantically involved." She didn't DARE to look up at any of the board members. She felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulder but, it had made place for an even bigger one._

 _More silence._

" _You both do realize that having affairs on the work floor is strictly forbidden at anchor beach unless you have an anonymous petition signed from all board members and the head of the educational departments?" Lipnicki said._

 _Lena looked at Monte with big eyes. A petition?_

 _It took them months to convince very single board member and the heads of the departments to sign their agreement forms. In the meantime, they were not to be alone together in a room on school property. This made working together much harder since they had to do their work in sight of Board members, department heads and teachers always. Two months later they had finally gathered all the agreement forms._

 _When everything was settled there was a separate board meeting to set ground rules concerning their relationship on school property. They were not allowed to hold hands, kiss or display any other romantic affection towards each other in front of the students, if they violated any of the rules, one of them would be fired._

 _It was weird, the first few days of everyone knowing that they were together, it was so different from all the lying, cheating and sneaking around that they were used to. It felt freeing, healthy and it felt honest._

 _It felt right._

The board meeting lasted about three hours, before Monte and Lena could get back to their regular work. Monte still hadn't spoken a single word to Lena yet, knowing that the school was not the place where they should solve their private problems. They had too much work to catch up to even see each other for the rest of the work day.

During the day, all Lena could think of was how guilty she felt. How sickened she was with herself. How bad Monte must feel about it. She had to fight the urge to walk to Monte's office and knock on the door, she knew that Monte needed time. And she had to give it to her in order for things to work out.

Lena grabbed her phone of her desk and texted Stef, 'why did you tell Jenna about what happened?'

Then, a few minutes later, she felt her phone buzz, expecting a text back from Stef but, instead it was one from Monte saying; 'Are you riding home with me or in your own car?'

Lena quickly texted back that Marianna and Sally weren't going to be home for dinner so she would have her car back. She didn't want to write that the two girls were having dinner at Stef's house to avoid any awkwardness.

She received a solid 'K' back from Monte. She received no response at all from Stef.

When the last school bell rang Lena quickly packed her bag and locked her office. She got to the parking lot and noticed that Monte's car was already gone.

She arrived home and found Monte on the couch, her concentration focused on a book. She had already showered; her hair was still damp and Lena could smell the strong scent of her cucumber/rose body lotion.

"Hey, Monte." She said softly, not to startle her. She walked over to the couch and sat on the opposite side that Monte was sitting on.

"Hi…" Monte responded without much effort in her voice.

"Are you ready to talk?" Lena asked.

For the first time today, Monte looked Lena in the eyes, "How many times?" She questioned, leaving no space for arguments.

"Just once, I swear. And It will never happen again." Lena pleaded. She needed Monte to know that she wasn't having an affair with Stef or anything.

"Where?" Came in response.

Lena chewed on her bottom lip before saying, "At Stef's place…" Lena hesitated. She knew that Monte was way to smart to not put one and one together.

"When? Because, I am always there during the dinners and the visits… and I always know where you are!" She stated, followed by, "Did you meet her in secret behind my back, just to kiss her?"

"NO! Of course not!" Lena quickly responded.

"Then when? Where was I?" Monte asked again. This time it was Lena who broke the eye contact, not wanting Monte to see the shame in them.

Then finally, it clicked in Monte's head. "W- Was I in the hospital?" She saw Lena visibly wince at her question.

"Lena, please tell me you didn't kiss Stef when I was in a coma? She said, the disgust visible in her voice, she was hoping and praying that she was wrong.

No answer. That was all the answer that Monte needed from Lena.

"How COULD you, Lena?" Monte whaled as her tears threatened to spill over. She had never in her entire live felt so betrayed. She had felt absolutely in sync with Lena up until this. Lena had become her whole life, she wanted to marry her and maybe some time soon, even have kids with her. What would this mean for THEM as a couple? Did this mean that Lena wanted to be with Stef again? She didn't know how to feel exactly. Was she even entitled to feel jealous or…. Whatever? She was after all the one who broke up their marriage in the first place…. She was the one who invaded in THEIR lives and tore them apart. She didn't want to feel like this. She didn't want their love to be based on feelings of guilt towards Stef.

Lena couldn't answer. She felt like the thumping that her heart did now, was too loud and her voice wouldn't be able to overbear it. The look on Monte's face wasn't one she ever wanted to see ever again. She looked broken, heartbroken and it was all because of what she had done. It had been a mistake, a terrible one. How could she justify that to Monte in a way that didn't hurt her further _? 'You were in a coma, everyone said you were dying and I felt bad so I snuggled up with my ex-wife… but it meant nothing'_ Yeah… it sounded ridicules even in her mind.

Monte tried to calm herself down by breathing in deeply a few times before speaking again "What… what does this mean? For us…."

Lena shook her head viciously, "Nothing! Nothing babe, I swear! It wasn't like that, I was just…. Stupid."

It was then when Monte couldn't keep her tears at bay anymore. This must have been how Stef had felt when she found out about the affair. Maybe that's why this happened, maybe this was just the universe getting even with her for breaking up a happy home in the first place.

Maybe it was Karma.

"What you thought I wouldn't wake up from that coma anyway, so you were ready to move on? Was that it, Lena? Fuck, couldn't you at least wait until they pulled the plug?" She said, rolling her eyes through her tears like a teenager would.

"No! Baby, I was there in the hospital EVERY day… I never gave up hope that you would wake up. It was just… I was such a mess and it was just a moment of weakness, I promise it meant nothing! I love you."

"You loved Stef too…" Monte said with a weak, sad smile on her face, "I need to go clear my head." she added. And with that she got up from the couch, leaving her fiancée there alone with her thoughts and made her way to the front door and into her car.

Lena heard Monte's car start and then roll out of the driveway. She didn't want to go after her right away. She would wait at least three hours. Monte needed time to process things and she herself needed time to think of how she could best formulate her feelings.

STEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTE

Four hours later, Monte was still seated in Lena's office. She found the room to be calming, it was the one place where she could think straight. It was Zen.

Monte jumped a little at the sound of someone knocking on the door, she knew it was Lena. After all, Lena was the only one besides her with a key to this wing of the school. Also, she could vaguely make out her form from behind the glass in the door.

She didn't have the energy to be polite right now and say, 'come in'. She watched as the door handle slowly turned before Lena stepped into the room.

"Hey" Lena said softly as she made her way to sit next to her fiancée on the office couch. That same couch that started everything. Between them, their first kiss, their first fight and their first 'I love you'. She remembered it like it was last week.

" _You look very cute when you're all concentrated." Monte said. She had opened Lena's office door to peek inside, finding Lena on the beige couch in the corner of her office, typing on her laptop surrounded by all kinds of files. Her hair was up in a high bun and her reading glasses rested on the tip of her nose as she was caught up in her work._

 _The curly haired woman looked up at monte and smiled. They had been secretly seeing each other for a few months now. They had come to a point where not seeing each other, not being with each other had become something that they didn't even consider anymore. They were already in way too deep to break thing off._

 _The first few weeks they had agreed to just keep it casual and 'use' one another when they needed too, no strings attached whatsoever. After all, Lena was married and Monte still considered herself 'straight'. But, after a while things started to progress into something more. Something that they hadn't DARED to label as anything yet. There were feelings, and they had both admitted that those feeling were strong. There was electricity between them every time they touched each other. Every time they kissed it was like everything disappeared around them. And to be honest, it scared them._

" _Only when I'm concentrated?" Lena faked a pout when Monte came to sit next to her._

 _Monte responded by taking the files Lena had in her hand and putting them on the table in front of them before pressing her lips against Lena's. A small moan of surprise escaped Lena's lips and was caught by Monte's in their kiss that was starting to become more passionate._

 _Lena's hands moved to Monte's hips and squeezed them before roughly pulling them towards her to get Monte closer to her._

 _The kiss started to get more and more heated and soon, both women were once again both half naked in Lena's office, glued together by the lips._

" _Oh, God… you feel so good, Lena." Monte whimpered when she felt Lena's mouth suck on that one sensitive spot on her neck that always drove her crazy._

 _Lena's hands kept roaming Monte's body slowly making their way to her breasts when suddenly Monte pulled herself from the kiss and started to sit up straight._

" _What's wrong?" Lena was confused. Had she done something wrong? Was something bothering Monte?_

 _Monte didn't say anything, she just kept her eyes focused on her hands that were in her lap. It didn't take long before a steady stream of tears spilled from her eyes._

" _Monte, talk to me. What's wrong?" Lena tried again. She was getting worried, Monte had never cried in front of her before, other than out of pleasure. She made her way off the couch and kneeled in front of Monte, trying to get her to look at her._

 _Monte sniffled and made a flimsy attempt to wipe away her tears, only to have them replaced by new ones right away. She finally lifted her eyes and looked at the woman on her knees in front of her. God, she was so beautiful. So perfect._

" _I love you." Monte mumbled softly followed by a small sob. A sad undertone in her voice._

 _Almost not audible enough for Lena to hear. But she most definitely did hear._

" _What?" Lena asked not because she didn't hear but just to make sure that she hadn't imagined it. Did Monte just tell her that she loved her?_

" _I'm so, so, sorry…. Lena, I know it's not okay! I really thought that I could do this… an affair with you without any strings attached. But, I can't help how strong I started feeling about you after a while. God, I feel so stupid!" Monte said, still looking into Lena's eyes, expecting to see regret and anger in them but instead, she found something else._

 _Affection._

" _I- I- I love you too." Lena said. Right at that moment she didn't think about Stef or the kids or about how much it would hurt them if they knew about the three words she had just said to Monte. Three words that were only supposed to be said to them, Her wife, her kids. Her family._

 _Monte's heart felt like it had just exploded inside of her and now the butterflies that had been inside her stomach were set free to roam throughout her whole body! Never in a million years would she have dreamed of hearing those words from Lena Adams-Foster._

" _Really?" Monte asked. She wanted to be sure that Lena meant what she said and that it wasn't just meant to be a lighthearted quote. "Don't just say that if you don't mean it, Lena. It would kill me." She added._

" _I do love you, Monte… And it scares me. I have a family." Lena whimpered, the fear visible in her voice._

 _Monte leaned in and kissed Lena's forehead, "Don't worry, baby. We'll figure this out, I promise." She said._

"Hi…" Monte answered, not able to look at Lena. Scared of what she will see or rather, what Lena will see in her.

"Look Monte… I'm…" Lena started but was cut off mid-sentence by Monte.

"PLEASE don't do that… please don't tell me how sorry you are, Lena. I can't…." This time it was Monte who was cut off during her speaking.

"I'm not sorry." Lena said with determination in her voice, earning a disturbed look from Monte.

"You're not… sorry?" Monte asked, her voice shaking. This must be it. This must be where Lena finally discovered that she wasn't in love with her after all. That she wanted to be with Stef and the rest of her family instead of with her. That it had all been some sort of mistake. Her long felt fears were finally coming true. Monte's heart dropped to her stomach.

"I thought about it for the past few hours and no… I'm not sorry." Lena spoke.

"Oh… That's…. Oh." Was all that Monte could utter now. After a year and a half Lena was finally ready to call it quits between them, she thought. She had been threading this moment for so long.

Then, Lena took Monte's hands in her own and spoke again, "I'm not sorry, because what happened with Stef was what made me realize something… Something important" She started, "It made me realize that the chemistry that remains between Stef and I is nothing more than a feeling of familiarity. It wasn't home anymore."

Monte looked up at her fiancée, "Lena?" She said, needing her to explain what she meant by what she just said.

"I want to be completely honest with you…" Lena started, squeezing Monte's hands tight in hers, wanting her to feel what she told her. "I DID still have some feelings for Stef. That night with you in the hospital, doctors telling us that you wouldn't wake up… I needed comfort and I needed a distraction from the emptiness that I felt from you not being there."

Monte didn't know how to feel about what Lena was saying.

Lena continued, "The next day when you woke up, I was so happy and I- I felt so much love for you, Baby. I have NEVER felt that kind of love for Stef." She said, her voice growing softer and softer as her mind traveled back to that day.

Now, Monte had finally swallowed that lump in her throat and gathered the strength to ask Lena, "But what about before that? What did that mean to you?"

Lena thought for a moment, as she wanted to be as truthful as possible, "I think that before the shooting happened I was too focused on equaling OUR relationship to the one I had with Stef. I didn't see that, that was impossible…" She said.

Now Monte was confused again, what did Lena mean by 'it's impossible to equal the two relationships'? Was she saying that the relationship with Stef was so good that it couldn't be topped by anything else?

"Lena, you're confusing me… I know that your relationship with Stef was strong…. You don't have to rub it in, okay?" Monte said, tears now freely streaming down her face. She tried to get off the couch but, Lena pulled her back down by her hands, forcing her to sit down again.

"It's impossible, because you are NOT Stef and this is a completely different relationship. One that I would do anything to save!" She said, "When you first kissed me after you woke up from the coma, I felt something that I had only felt with Stef before that…" She added. Her hand now on Monte's check wiping away her tears with her thumb.

"What did you feel?" Monte sniffled.

"Your lips felt like coming home. The kiss with Stef that night didn't feel like that anymore… If it still did, it would have happened again, and it didn't and it never will again…. You feel like home, and that's why I know for sure that I want to be with YOU for the rest of my life! I love you."

Monte sighed. Relieved. Elevated. Comforted.

"Kiss me." She said as she closed her eyes, awaiting Lena's soft lips on her own.

Lena pulled Monte up to her face and kissed her welcoming lips gently. They brushed their lips together briefly, then Monte pressed against Lena more, wrapping her arms around Lena's neck. Lena's tongue brushed against Monte's lower lip, practically begging for more, and Monte agreed, opening her mouth just enough to accept Lena's tongue. Their tongues slowly embraced each other as the two women kissed sweetly.

"I love you too." Monte said before connecting their lips again.

Their kiss went from sweet and gentle to hungry and passionate within a minute. Lena's tongue probed its way inside her fiancée's mouth again, she basically grabbed hold of the back of Monte's head to thrust her tongue deep into her mouth, causing monte to moan into the kiss.

Lena felt Monte's hands touch her breasts gently, squeezing a little, just hard enough to make Lena moan for her but also just soft enough to make her arch into Monte's hands, wanting more.

Lena suddenly pulled away, "hmm, baby… How about we go home and finish this there?" She purred. Even though it was long after school hours and there was nobody around to see them, Lena didn't want their first love making session after the coma to be in her office.

Monte moaned before pecking Lena on the lips once more, "Okay… Mari and Sally are going to be home though… We'll have to sneak in." She said.

They drove their separate cars to their house and parked them next to each other when they arrived.

"Oh, Lena… what a coincidence that we arrived home at the exact same time, Baby!" She joked at her fiancée.

Lena followed Monte to the front door and stood behind her as Monte searched her bag for the keys to the front door. As she was rummaging through her bag, Monte felt Lena pressing her body against her from the back. Lena ran her hands along Monte's sides before one of them traveled upwards to move Monte's hair away from her neck. Lena bend her head down and traced the very tip of her tongue along the back of Monte's neck, making goosebumps appear in her skin.

Lena's tongue traveled even more upwards, then sucked in the lobe of Monte's ear. "Would you hurry up with that key already, baby?" She whispered into Monte's ear.

Monte's hand started to scrabble through her bag again until she found the single key to the front door. She quickly opened the door, and they walked inside. Their attempt to sneak up the stairs to their room was quickly wrecked as Mariana appeared from the kitchen with a bag of chips in her hand and her phone in the other.

"Hey! you guys are home late… was there a meeting?" the teenager asked.

Lena looked at monte with a look that said, 'make something up fast'.

"Yeah, we've been working on the… uhm… fund setup for the…. Next semester." Monte managed to utter, hoping it sounded somewhat believable to the teenager in front of them.

"Uhm... Oh-kay…." Marianna didn't think much of it, "Well, Sally and I are going to watch that new movie about those big robot- thingies… are you guys joining?" She asked.

"Well, actually. Monte isn't feeling too well, I think we're just going to call it a night, sweets." Lena lied.

Marianna shrugged her shoulders, "Okay, feel better, Monte." She smiled and then made her way to the living room where Sally was.

The two older women followed her to greet Sally who was already in the living room and to make sure that the two girls were occupied before they went upstairs.

"Hey Sal!" Monte said as she and Lena stood in the opening of the living room.

"Oh, hey… You guys are home." She half smiled at them.

They explained to her the same thing they had told Marianna a few minutes ago. After they were sure that the girls were watching the movie, Lena grabbed Monte's hand and pulled her back into the hallway and up the stairs. She gently pushed Monte inside their bedroom before making sure the door was locked.

 _ ***WARNING SMUT AHEAD***_

As soon as the door was locked their mouths were glued together again. Monte pulled Lena close to her body as she started moving her mouth harder against her fiancée's, parting Lena's lips and slipping her tongue between them. Unable to do anything more than mewl at the sensation, Lena sunk into Monte's strong embrace, enjoying her hand on her lower back guiding her backwards until they reached the edge of their bed.

Monte interrupted their kiss and looked deep into Lena's eyes. "Promise me that you're never going to break my heart, Lena." She asked in a distressed voice.

Lena pecked her lips once again, "I promise." she kissed down Monte's neck, sucking on her pulse point, making the shorter woman moan in response. Lena made quick work of Monte's blouse, and pencil skirt and threw them on the floor behind her, revealing black boy shorts and a red and black lacy bra that pushed her big breasts upwards and only just managed to cover her nipples.

Lena gently pushed her to lay back. She gave Monte a little show as she undressed herself completely in front of the bed. She Kneeled in front of Monte and pulled off her heels, massaging her toes, heel, and arch. Monte couldn't help but lay back; her long dark hair spread out on the bed sheets, eyes closed enjoying the feeling of Lena's fingers dancing along her skin.

Lena worked up her ankles, calves, gently tickling the back of her knees garnering a timid giggle from her lover, and up to the juncture of her thighs.

"Keep your eyes closed, Baby." Lena whispered softly.

Monte silently wondered why bur obeyed anyway, only to squeal a few seconds after as Lena's tongue and lips touched her moist mound over the fabric of her boy shorts before she felt her pulling them down her legs. Now she was left in just her bra.

"Oh, you're so wet, Monte!" Lena said, Monte bit her bottom lip to keep herself from moaning too loud when she felt Lena's hot breath on her soaked middle.

"Hmm, that's what nine weeks without you down there does to me, baby." She managed to utter

And then, suddenly, without warning, Monte felt her clitoris being isolated by Lena's lips, as she slowly sucked it in, drawing it forward.

"Oh my GOD!" Monte momentarily forgot to keep her voice down as she felt Lena's tongue swirl around her sensitive bud. She had been aching for Lena for weeks now.

Suddenly Monte's thighs clenched to the sides of Lena's face, trapping her, her hands flew to Lena's hair to keep her head in place, making it unable for Lena to move her head. Monte pushed her pelvis against Lena's face and squirmed up and down and side to side to continue the sensation she was having.

"Aah, baby! Don't stop," Monte gasped. Then in a much higher voice, "Aaah yes, Lena! FUCK!" And her pussy jerked hard against Lena's mouth coating it in sticky liquid, as her whole body trembled. After one more thrust of her hips against Lena's face she let out a low moan and went limp against the bed.

Lena smiled and licked her lips as she kissed her way up Monte's still jerking body, breathing heavy.

She caressed Monte's face lovingly until monte came down from her orgasmic high.

"You look so beautiful when you cum… Your eyes closed, your jaw clenched and your head thrown back and your body jiggles all over the place…" Lena was taken by surprise when Monte abruptly forced her on her back and mavouvered her body on top of Lena's. On all fours on top of her fiancée, Monte dangled her breasts over Lena's, rotating her back, letting her nipples graze Lena's sensitive ones. Earning a whimper from the darker woman.

"Hmmm, Monte. You feel so good." Lena moaned as Monte's lips traveled to her breast. She placed open mouth kissed on the swell of Lena's breast. Then she took the nipple between her teeth, her tongue dashed back and forth over the part of the nipple that had been pinched behind her teeth. Again, Lena moaned, then arched her back into Monte's mouth.

Monte kept her mouth at Lena's breast as she pushed her middle finger into the moist opening between Lena's legs, and buried it to the hilt. With her other hand, she started rubbing her fiancée's clit in circles with her thumb. Lena quivered and gasped aloud.

After a few moments, just when Lena felt her orgasm starting to build, Monte removed her hand from Lena's center only to replaced her finger with her mouth. Once she found Lena's clit, she began to lick it sending those nearly orgasmic feelings back through her body. Looking up, she couldn't have been more turned on by the sight of Lena's breasts bouncing as her body twisted and turned with ecstasy. As

Monte applied more pressure to her G-spot with her fingers, Lena began to almost gasp with each moan which was a new sound for Monte to hear from her, but he could feel her body trembling. As soon as She found the right moment, Monte bit down slightly on Lena's sensitive nub.

The shock of the move was the last straw as Lena silently screamed out, nearly spasming out as Monte kissed her way back up the darker woman's body.

 _ ***END OF SMUT***_

"I love you, so much." Lena managed to utter in her post orgasmic state.

"I love you too." Monte answered.

The two of them drifted off into a peaceful sleep in each other's arms. The next day, the rest of the kids would come over for the weekend, they would need their sleep. Having 6 teenagers for the weekend wasn't going to be easy.

STEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTE

The next morning Monte was the first one of the two to wake up from the loud knocking sound on their bedroom door. She woke Lena up and whispered that they should get dressed. Before Monte even answered for the person on the other side to wait a second, it flew open and Mariana stormed inside of the room.

Monte quickly pulled the covers up to cover her bare chest, too late.

The teenager rapidly covered her eyes with her hands and let out a grunt of disgust, "Ew, ew, ew, ew! My eyes!" She whaled as she turned around, giving the women privacy to get dressed. What a way to start your day, catching your mom and her fiancée naked in bed together. GROSS!

Lena put on her grey kimono and threw one at Monte to wear also.

"Next time, wait till we say you can come in, Honey… Save us all the embarrassment." Monte said her skin becoming normal again from blushing.

"Marianna, you know that you can't just barge into someone's room like that." Lena added in her typical mom voice. She had raised her kids better than to just walk into a room without knocking and waiting for conformation to open the door.

"I'm sorry but, there is a guy at the door for you, Monte." Marianna argument. Trying to get out of a lecture.

"What guy?" Monte's facial expression turned into a confused one, who would come search for her this early in the morning? It was 7:30 am on a Saturday, for god's sake!

"Uh, I don't know… He's tall, black hair, looks like a Latino…" Marianna explained, "Oh, he said his name was Cor… Uh, something with Cor… Cort… I forgot." She tried to remember but she failed. The guy had told her his name and asked her to get Monte, she didn't really think much of it. He was probably some business guy or something. Business people came over for Monte all the time.

Monte's face went blank, "C-Cortez?" She stuttered, staring at Marianna intensely. She hoped that she was wrong and she was just imagining things.

"Oh, Yeah, That's it! Cortez!" Marianna said.

Monte's hand visibly shook when she reached for her phone on the nightstand. She looked at the screen and saw four more text from the 'anonymous' number.

"Damnit!" She cussed at her phone before getting off the bed.

 _How did he even get her telephone number? She moved to the other side of the country to get away from him, for god's sake, how did he find her? Why can't he just leave her alone for good?_

"Babe, what's wrong? Who's Cortez?" Lena asked, concerned about the way Monte reacted to hearing about this 'man'.

Monte turned to face Lena and bit her lip in frustration, "Cortez is my… My ex-Husband." She said.

When Lena asked about her ex-husband, Monte had always told her that it was something that she didn't wat to talk about. Something that she just wanted to forget. All that Lena knew about it is that Monte was married for three years and she miscarried a pregnancy during her marriage. Lena had brought the subject of Monte's ex-husband up a few times and noticed it upset Monte so she just stopped asking.

Lena looked at Monte with surprise, "Oh… Do you want me to come with you?" She asked, not really knowing in what way she should react.

Monte didn't answer, she just shook her head no before walking out of the room. The same black stare on her face. Leaving Marianna and Lena dumbfounded.

Monte took a deep breath in and opened the front door with a shaking hand. There he was, he looked just the same, nothing had changed about him. He just stood there with his smug smile.

"What do you want from me, Cortez? How do you know where I live?" She stated, trying to sound as brave as possible. She hated the way he made her feel so powerless. She hated that he could make her feel so tiny. She just hated HIM!

"Monte! How lovely to see you again, you look stunning as ever." His deep voice shot into her ear like a torpedo. The hairs on the back of her neck all stood up straight. He reached out to kiss the back of her hand but, she stepped backwards before her could even touch her.

"What do you WANT?" She asked again. This time there was a hint of a desperate tone in her voice.

Cortez smiled, exposing his two rows of pearly whites. "What? You didn't get my texts, Kitten?" He answered calmly. He looked at Monte with a faked look of confusion.

'KITTEN' The pet name he had used for her ever since they met. She was disgusted by it.

"I did." She answered, "I just don't believe you. It's not possible, Cortez." She attempted to shut the door in his face bot Cortez paused it opened again with much force, making Monte stumble backwards.

Monte's eyes began to tear up and she began to shake out of fear. The look in Cortez's eyes brought back memories.

" _What the fuck is this Monte?" Cortez screamed in Monte's face as he waved the envelope in her face. She had no idea how he found out that she was staying in this hotel. She had finally gained the courage to run away from him and yet here he was again._

 _Monte didn't answer. Too scared about what her would do to her. To the outside world she was this rich, successful businesswoman with a perfect life._

" _BITCH! Answer me! What are these? Huh? Tell me!" He yelled at her as he slapped her in the face with the envelope._

" _D- divorce papers." Monte sobbed out while thick tears streamed down her face. She saw that look starting to form in her husband's eyes and she knew what was about to happen next. It had happened so many times before and she thought that by running away from him it would stop. But apparently, he would always find her._

 _Cortez threw the envelope at her, grabbed her by her forearms and slammed her into the wall behind them._

" _Please Cortez, I'll do anyth…." Monte started begging but was cut off by one of Cortez's hand meeting the side of her face. Hard. Monte's hands automatically flew to protect her face, from another blow._

" _You wanna get a divorce? Huh? You ungrateful little slut!" He pulled Monte up by her hair against the wall and delivered another blow to her face before throwing her on the floor like a rag doll._

 _She tried crawling backwards in a feeble attempt to get away from him, of course without success. All she could do was curl up in a ball as he used all his strength to kink her into the ground. His foot kicked her head hard, causing her to see starts for a few seconds. When she regained her vision, Cortez had finally stopped kicking her._

" _Monte, get the fuck up, you look pathetic." She heard him roar. At this point she knew it was best if she just did what he asked to not make him angrier._

 _She gathered all her strength to hoist herself up on her feet again. Felling the soreness starting to form all over, she moaned out of pain._

 _Cortez sat on the bed as she stood sobbing in front of him._

" _You went behind my back, Kitten. I don't like that. I'll get you back for that… you're going to get a taste of your own medicine. Ten times worse." He said calmly now. He ALWAYS did this. He would beat the living crap out of her and then talk to her like nothing happened afterwards._

" _What did you tell your lawyer?" Cortez asked as he looked down at the divorce papers that he had picked up from the ground again. He knew that she knew what he meant by that. 'did you tell your lawyer that I beat you?'_

" _Nothing… I swear. I just told him that I wanted a divorce." Monte said truthfully. She knew better than to tell anyone about her situation. Cortez would kill her. Not even her parents knew, they thought Cortez was a wonderful man who only wanted the best for Monte._

 _Cortez threw his hands up in a defensive manner, "Okay. You want one? You're going to get one.", he said, "But, I'm taking everything, you hear me. The house, the cars, I get every last penny you own… Understood?" He added, sounding more like a threat than an offer._

 _Monte couldn't talk. She would literally lose EVERYTHING that she had ever worked for to this man. She would lose her career, her money, her house, her status. She would lose everything._

 _Just like she lost her baby when he pushed her down the stairs, causing her to miscarriage._

 _She was snapped out of her thoughts by his voice, this time sounding soft and caring, "I really do love you, Kitten."_

" _I love you too." She said. She did. She really did. And she wish she didn't._

"Not possible? Didn't you see the pictures?" Cortez asked, followed by a sadistic laugh, "I told you I'd get you back, Monte. Ten times worse." He added.

"What pictures?" Monte asked before heard footsteps coming from upstairs behind her, she had to get rid of Cortez quickly.

"I send you pictures This morning at around 3 AM." He answered.

"Cortez, can we please discuss this some other time?" She asked her voice filled with panic as she heard the footsteps come closer and closer.

"Oh? And when will that be?" he asked, leaning into the doorway.

Monte looked behind her and saw Lena starting to come down the stairs.

"Tonight, we'll have dinner…. I'll text you. I promise." She quickly said softly, hoping that Lena didn't hear.

Monte heard Lena's footsteps come closer and closer until she heard her voice coming from right behind her.

Cortez put on his signature prince charming smile for Lena and introduced himself in the politest manner. Lena did the same. They made some small talk and Monte kept her focus on making sure Cortez wouldn't say anything that would make Lena suspicious.

"Well, I would love to stay a bit longer and get to know you better… Lena but, unfortunately I have to be back to my business meeting in a couple of minutes." Cortez said.

He took his chance and kissed Monte on the cheek, feeling her tense up at the contact. Oh, how he had missed the way she feared him.

"He's nice!" Lena exclaimed as she and monte started on preparing breakfast.

It had been years since Monte had to put on the act named 'Cortez is a good guy'. She wondered for a second what would happen if she told Lena about the abuse. NO. she couldn't, she didn't want Lena to see her as a victim. It was pathetic.

"Yeah, he's a great man." Monte answered trying to sound as truthful as she could.

Lena was silent for a minute and then asked, "What was your marriage like?" She had asked Monte this many times before and never really got an answer out of her. Now that she had met Cortez herself, she thought it would be a better time to ask.

Monte flipped a pancake, "It was… wonderful in the beginning, we were a real power couple in the business world. I really loved him." Up until now she hadn't lied to Lena yet.

"What made you guys divorce each other?" Lena asked with honest interest. This was something that Monte had never opened up about to her.

Monte bit her lip, this was the part she hated. Having to lie, having to make something up just to let people think Cortez wasn't that bad.

"We… the work was just too much on both of us and it started to take its toll. We kept fighting over every little thing and at one point, Cortez asked me to get a divorce to not hurt each other more than we already did."

Lena nodded her head, signaling that she understood "What a coincidence his conference is in this part San Diego right? Maybe we should have dinner with him sometime before he leaves back to Texas!" She said.

Then Monte remembered Cortez saying something about pictures, "I- I'm going to get my phone really quick… can you handle the pancakes for a sec?" She asked Lena, who nodded in response and pecked her on the lips swiftly.

With every step she took up the stairs, her heart began to beat a little faster. What if it was true? What if he didn't lie?

She walked into her room and took her phone form where she left it on the nightstand. She unlocked it and was immediately met with four new picture messages. Her finger shook as she opened the dialogue box.

Tears started to form in her eyes as he looked at the pictures one by one. They were pictures of Cortez with a little boy about two or three years old. he had an olive skin tone. Curly, jet black hair and a pointy nose stuck out above his softly shaped lips. But the things that made Monte's heart beat faster were those eyes. Eyes that she had only seen on three other people in the world. On her mother, her sister and on herself when she looked into the mirror.

She scrolled all the way up to the beginning of the messages and started reading them again.

Unknown number: How does it feel?

Monte: Who is this? How does what feel?

Unknown number: How does it feel to get a taste of your own medicine, Monte?

Monte: What do you mean?

Unknown number: your son keeps on asking about his mommy

Monte: I Don't have a son. You probably have the wrong number. Sorry.

Unknown number: Oh no, Kitten. I'm very sure this is the right number.

Monte: Cortez?

Unknown number: Smart girl. Our son definitely takes after you in that department.

Monte: Our son? Is this a joke? How did you get my number?

Unknown number: His name is Benito. I call him Ben though.

Monte: No. you're insane. Leave me alone Cortez. I'm blocking this number.

Unknown number: WAIT.

Monte: What?

Unknown number: Do you remember when we froze your eggs? I used them.

Monte: Cortez, stop. Please! You're lying!

Unknown number: Since they were STILL stored in that clinic under both of our names. I had the right to use them. A girl in college carried him for me in exchange for her college fees,

Monte: How stupid do you think I am. That's impossible.

Unknown number: Picture one

Unknown number: Picture two

Unknown number: Picture three

Unknown number: Picture four

Monte's eyes got big. How could he do this? Was this some kind of trick that he was playing on her? Monte send a text back, telling Cortez to meet her at 7 for dinner at a restaurant.

 **So, yeah…. That was it for this chapter! I hope you guys liked it… please feel free to REVIEW if you have any requests! Please tell me if you guys like the Cortez story line or not! Also… what did you guys think will happen when Stef goes to get the results at the hospital?** **I'll update when I can!**


	11. Belonging

**Hey guys! Yes, back at it again with another chapter! This chapter will be about Stef since some of ya'll have been asking to see more of her. This chapter will be a little shorter that what you guys are used to from me…. I just wanted to introduce Stef's new guuuuuuuurlfriend and start up a new storyline that was suggested by ne of you.**

 **PLEASE leave a REVIEW with what you think about the chapter and if you like the person that I paired Stef up with. I thought it would create some delicious drama between everyone… and you guys know I like to write some good 'ole drama!**

 **Please don't think the pairs that I have together now will be endgame…. I don't know yet. REVIEW what couple's you'd like to see together at the end of the story… which is still about 40 chapters away LOL.**

 **Oh, someone suggested Monte and Sally together…. For this story, it's a no because sally is 15 here. I'll probably do another story where she's 18 but thank you for the suggestion anyways!**

 **Also, someone asked me what age the kids are in this story, I think that in this story they are a few years younger so… Brandon and Callie are about 16, Marianna and Jesus are 15 and Jude is 12. Stef is 45, Lena is 40 and Monte is 34.**

 **Before you start reading please remember that English isn't my first language, Dutch is. So please point out any typo's or grammatical errors to me so I can correct them :-)**

 **Happy reading you guys!**

Stef walked into the small diner with a blank stare on her face. She had just come from the doctor and al she wanted was to be with this one person. She needed someone to talk to and someone to catch her if she fell apart during doing so.

"Babe, what's wrong? I tried calling you like a million times!" The younger woman said as she got up from the booth in which she was already sitting. She had been worried sick about Stef all day! This afternoon Stef send her a text asking her to see her around 8 pm that night at a diner. Nothing else. And when she tried calling her, there was no response whatsoever.

Stef didn't answer yet. She pressed her body against the woman and hugged her tight. The woman knew that something must have been very wrong with Stef for her to show affection in public. Even though there was a huge spark between them, they hadn't gone public yet. The two of them had just started dating a few months ago.

STEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENA

 **(A/N: Get ready for some real mindboggling shit, guys!)** _She felt like it was the right thing to do. After Lena tried to have sex with her tonight, she felt like she understood Monte better. As weird as it sounds. She now knew what it was like to want Lena while she was someone else's._

 _A few hours after the whole ordeal had happened, something drove Stef to visit Monte. She felt thankful the woman had sacrificed her own safety to save Marianna. As her condition got worse, Stef felt like she_ _had to thank her properly, before it was maybe too late._

 _Stef walked inside the hospital room and was greeted by the strong, piercing smell of disinfectant. The room was a lot darker than the hallway but, not too dark. She walked over to the bed, slowly. As she got closer to the bed, the groggy, watery intakes of breath got more audible to her._

 _She sat down on one of the two chairs next to the bad and looked at Monte. Her face was pale, her lips dry, and she was hooked up to all sorts of machines. As much as she disliked Monte for what she did to her, she hated seeing her like this._

" _Hey Monte." Stef started, getting a little closer to the bed, "I know that we… we haven't been very friendly with each other but uhm… I want to thank you. I want to thank you for saving my baby girl."_

 _For a few seconds, it looked like Monte's eyes fluttered open but, Stef thought it must have been a reflex to something._

 _Stef started again, "Lena did something stupid tonight… Something that I'm sure she didn't mean…."_

 _Stef didn't finish as the door to the room opened behind her,_

" _Hello? Lena is that you?" A voice sounded from behind Stef, making her turn around fast in response. She could make out a figure but the bright light from the hallway made it hard to see who it was._

" _No, it's uh… It's me, Stef." She answered. As the person came closer Stef could finally see who it was. Itzel. Monte's younger sister._

" _Oh…" Itzel looked at Stef and didn't even ask for more explanation as to why she was here in her sister's hospital room. She walked closer to where Stef was next to Monte's bed and sat down on the chair next her. She looked at the unconscious body of her sister._

 _A silent tear escaped her eye. She thought that she was all cried out but, every damn time she saw Monte like this it made her want curl up in a ball and cry for hours. She was a Brain surgeon herself and she knew exactly how slim the chances of survival for someone in Monte's condition were._

 _Stef watched as Itzel's tears started to really stream down her face and she started uncontrollably sobbing._

" _Hey, are… are you okay? I can't even imagine what you must feel like." She asked putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder._

" _It's… It's hard. I never thought that I'd ever see her like this. You know, she has always been this strong person who I look up to. She was always the one who protected me, ever since we were little. Who's going to protect me if she's gone?" Itzel rambled, more to herself than to Stef. Her tears still streaming down her face._

 _Itzel looked up at Stef and quickly tried to gather herself, whipping her teats with the back of her hand, "I'm sorry, I'm such mess these days. You must think I'm an idiot."_

 _Stef reached into her handbag and handed Itzel a pack of tissues before saying, "No, No, not at all. We've all been a little…"_

 _She didn't even know what she was trying to say, she had no idea how it must be like for Monte's family, "I can't even imagine what you must feel like." She said truthfully._

 _Itzel accepted the tissues and pulled one out of the package smiling a tiny smile of gratitude._

" _I just want it to be over, you know. I'm done with thy crying and the praying and I'm done seeing my sister like this." She blew her nose, "I miss her so much."_

 _Stef tried to think of something that could maybe Itzel up, "Hey, it's going to be alright."_

 _Itzel didn't even react. She was too caught up in her own sadness._

" _Do you want something to eat?" Stef suggested, speaking louder this time, getting Itzel's attention._

 _Itzel made a face that showed pure disgust, "Oh no, I'm so over the food they serve here in the hospital. It's absolute garbage."_

" _Well, there is a pretty decent diner about five blocks from here… They serve some awesome garlic fries!" Stef tried. For some reason, she absolutely hated seeing the young woman cry._

" _Ah…" Itzel exclaimed awkwardly. 'I don't even know her' she thought to herself._

" _I think I'm just going to stay here with her." She finally answered, looking at her sister._

" _Alright, okay." Stef said, "That's fine too… Uhm, try getting some rest." She added before getting up. She looked at Monte once more before leaving the room._

 _She reached the elevator and pushed the button when she heard Itzel's voice hollering from behind her._

" _Stef!" Itzel exclaimed while half sprinting towards the older blonde woman._

 _Stef turned around and answered, "Yeah?"_

" _I could go for some garlic fries…" Itzel smiled, a little out of breath from the half sprint she had just done. She decided that a little distraction wouldn't hurt. She had spent almost every minute in that hospital for the last couple of days. Right now, she needed to set her mind off everything and just… eat some garlic fries._

 _With her Comatosed sister's, fiancée's, ex-wife who she didn't even know at all at 1 AM_ _._

 _Stef got into the elevator and smiled at Itzel. Itzel smiled back. About half an hour later they were seated at a booth with two portions of freshly served garlic fries in front f them. None of them had really said something to each other since they got there._

" _So? How long were you married to Lena before… you know?" Itzel suddenly said. She was curious. Her sister had always been this perfect, flawless woman. She would have never thought that Monte would ever have a romantic affair with anyone._

" _Unless you don't want to talk about it…. I get that it's personal." Itzel had seen the expression on Stef's face change. Maybe she had gone too far?_

 _Stef was a little surprised at the bold question but decided to answer anyways, "No its fine! Uh, we were together for 10 years before we got married and then we were married for about a year and a half before Monte started working at the school."_

" _Do you hate her?" The question popped up in Itzel's head and she asked it before even thinking it through. She knew that Stef must have felt horrible about all of it._

" _For a very long time, I did." Stef answered truthfully, "But, not anymore. She fell in love with Lena… I can't blame her for that." She plated with the last three fried on her plate._

" _I'm sorry, that must have been hard for you… and the kids." Itzel said. She was happy that her sister had found true love but she now also understood that Lena and Stef had five children together whose family was torn apart._

" _Yeah, it was. But, now we've all moved on and we're all getting used to this new situation." Stef tried not to sound too torn apart. She was. But right now, that didn't matter so much._

" _I wish they would have found each other in a different way. Divorces are never fun for anyone." Itzel spoke as she flashed Stef her most sympatric facial expression._

" _Are you married?" Stef questioned. Right after the question left her mouth she regretted it. What if Itzel thought she was flirting with her?_

 _The younger woman looked away slightly, "No… I was engaged for a while but, that didn't work out."_

"Oh… I'm sorry about that." Stef said in response, placing her hand on Itzel's shoulder to comfort her a little.

" _Me too." The younger woman smiled a little at Stef. She was being so sweet to her and she didn't even know her that well. She was the ex-wife of her sister's fiancée, she didn't have to do all this just to make her feel better. But she did, she had taken the time and the energy to take Itzel to a diner at 1 AM. just to cheer her up. And she didn't even know her._

 _Itzel's eyes were starting to get watery again and soon she was full on crying. Why? She had no Idea! Maybe it was because of Monte, maybe it was because of how nice Stef was being, maybe it was because of her failed engagement. She was such an emotional mess. She didn't know why she trusted this woman who she barely even knew with all her emotions._

" _Hey, hey, hey… What's wrong?" Stef asked with a tone that she had used often with her kids when they were upset about something, "Are you okay?" she asked, getting closer to the crying woman._

" _I'm sorry, I'm such a mess! I just start crying for no reason these days." She rolled her eyes at herself. She was being ridicules. Why couldn't she control her tears?_

" _It's understandable…. Things aren't exactly rose-colored right now. It's totally normal to cry, Itzel." Stef said softly as she reached into her bag and handed Itzel another tissue. She brushed a few loose strands of Itzel's shoulder length hair out of her face with her hand._

" _Thank you, Stef. You're a sweetheart." Itzel said as she took the hand that Stef had used to brush the hair out of her face and held it in her own._

" _Try telling that to my kids!" Stef joked. Why did she joke? She always joked like this when she was nervous… was she nervous?_

" _Uhg, I must look like awful right now." Itzel sniffled as she blew her nose again with her free hand. She hadn't even looked in a mirror longer than 5 seconds since she got to San Diego. She figured she looked like a piece of chewed up gum._

" _No, you look beautiful…." The words left Stef's mouth before she could even think about it. But it was true. Itzel was a beautiful woman. Her shoulder length brown hair with big waves, green eyes with long lashes. Her skin was about three tones darker than her sister's and her nose was much pointier. She was indeed gorgeous._

 _Stef noticed Itzel starting to blush and then realized that her hand was still holding hers. She quickly put_ _her hand in her own lap to avoid any awkwardness between the two of them. They sat in the diner for another 15 minutes before Stef drove Itzel back to Monte's house and then drove home._

 _The next afternoon, the news came that Monte had miraculously woken up. Stef drove all the kids to the hospital. Lena was already there, she had already left when Stef woke up. Apparently, she was the one who saw Monte wake up, earlier that morning._

" _Hi, guys!" Itzel greeted the five children cheerfully when she saw them walk into the waiting room. They all greeted her back politely._

" _Hey." Stef said, groggy. Her voice sounding a little shy for some reason._

" _Hi, Stef." Itzel smiled softly at the older blonde. Making eye contact with her._

" _So, how is she doing?" Marianna asked, breaking the eye contact between her mom and her soon to be step-aunt. The moment that she heard Monte had woken up, she had busted into tears. Happy tears of course._

" _She's stable… She's awake and already mostly breathing on her own…" Itzel didn't get to finish her sentence as a very exited Jude interrupted her._

" _Can we go see her?" The youngest member of the Adams-Fosters asked._

 _Itzel laughed a little for the first time in days, "Yeah, sure…." She said, "Mom! Traer a los niños para arriba, por favor?" She asked her mother who was all the way on the other side of the waiting room and hadn't even noticed Stef and the kids until now._

 _Katarina greeted Stef and the five children before guiding the children upstairs to her daughter's hospital room._

" _Hey…" Itzel said again when her mom and the kids had gone into the elevator. She flashed Stef a soft look._

" _Hi…" Stef answered, "So, you must be relieved" she added._

 _Itzel let out a deep sigh of relief and smiled at Stef "I am... I really am." A few hours ago, she had been trying to convince her parents to maybe pull the plug on the life support machines, to spare all of them even more pain. And now she woke up all by herself! It was a miracle._

" _Thank you again for last night… I needed that." Itzel said_

" _You're welcome." Stef answered. She had enjoyed the night before. She like being in Itzel's company. She was sweet, very smart and gorgeous too. Monte's parents sure had some good genes…_

" _Do you… maybe want to have dinner again tonight?" Itzel stuttered. Wait! Did she just ask Stef out on a date? She had never even been attracted to women. But, she wanted to know more about the older blonde woman, she wanted to get to know her. Did this mean that she was attracted to Stef?_

" _Uhm…" Stef couldn't find any words to shoot back at Itzel. Did she mean dinner as in a 'date' kind of dinner? Or just dinner as in eating food dinner?_

 _Itzel noticed the doubting look on Stef's face, "Just, to repay you for yesterday." She said, trying to ease the awkwardness._

 _Stef thought for a few seconds before answering, "Ah, sure. I'd love that." She figured a dinner wouldn't hurt. She was Monte Porter's 29-year-old little sister for god's sake, there was no way she would consider DATING her? Right? Wasn't she straight anyways?_

" _Okay, let's go see Monte." Itzel said as she started walking towards the elevators, Stef followed her. The two walked closer to each other than necessary._

 _The next couple of weeks they saw each other more often. They had both dropped little flirty comments towards each other but they hadn't dared to go any further than that._

" _Uhg, I'm so full! I feel like I ate a whole cow!" Itzel moaned after eating the last bite of her hamburger. She leaned back in her chair and smiled to herself a little, already knowing that Stef would make a smart-ass remark in 3…2…1…_

 _Stef put on her typical mocking voice, "Ah! You're weak, I could eat two more of those burgers!"_

" _Yeah but, you're a good eater." It escaped Itzel's mouth before she could even think about how sexual it would sound. She started to blush and smiled shyly._

 _Stef decided to take her chance and go in a little deeper, "You're yet to find out if I'm a good eater or not." She mumbled just loud enough for Itzel to hear._

 _Then Itzel's smile started to fade a little and made place for a more serious face, "Listen, Stef…" she started, "I know we've been kind of… flirting the past couple of weeks."_

 _Stef nodded and cocked her mouth to the side, "We have."_

" _I'm not…" Itzel paused, not knowing exactly how to formulate her next words, "I'm not gay… I've never been with a woman."_

" _What are you trying to tell me?" Stef asked. Maybe she meant that Itzel didn't want her to get the wrong idea. Maybe Itzel didn't want her to flirt that much. Maybe it was the age difference… they were 16 whole years apart. Maybe Itzel just didn't want to be with a woman. Maybe she had just been experimenting with her sexuality when she had been flirting._

 _So many things shot through Stef's mind but she tried to keep a straight face._

 _Out of nowhere, Itzel spoke again, "Do you like me?" she asked, not being able to look Stef in the eyes._

" _I do…" Stef smiled, "allot actually." She added, hoping it wouldn't sound desperate or anything._

 _Itzel smiled at Stef's answer but quickly went back to her serious expression, "You don't think it's strange that I'm your ex-wife's soon to be sister in law?"_

" _Do YOU think it's strange?" Stef shot back. To be honest, Stef didn't really care. How could this be worse_ than the affair that Monte had had with Lena?

"Maybe a little." Itzel said truthfully, hoping Stef wouldn't mind that she did.

" _What if we… take things slow and don't tell people anything yet. Until we figure out if this is going to be something serious?" Stef suggested. She knew that there was a chance that nothing serious would come out of their 'dating'. Why make a big ole fuss about it and tell everyone, if nothing was sure yet?_

" _Yeah… That sounds good." The younger woman said._

STEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENAMONTESTEFLENA

"What happened? You had me so worried with that text!" Itzel exclaimed. She had really been worried sick.

"I'm sorry." Stef finally said when their embrace ended. She saw the worry and fear in Itzel's eyes and felt a little guilty. She had been so tiered that she just went to bed right after she got home. She had told the kids to order pizza and had asked them not to disturb her. Tomorrow they would spend the weekend at Lena's which she was kind of happy about, she would have some time to sort thing out for herself.

"Here, come sit down, tell me what happened" Itzel took Stef's hands and guided her to the both where they sat down. Still holding each other's hands.

When Stef finally found her voice, she spoke barely above a whisper "I… I went for the second mammogram today…"

A long pause. Silence.

"And?" Itzel tried catching Stef's eyes in her own without much success, "STEF! Answer me…" she demanded. She needed to know what was going on. from the look on Stef's face she could already tell that the doctors found something.

"There was a lump…." Tears were starting to form in Stef's eyes but she absolutely refused to let them fall. She was strong and she knew she would get through this.

"What?" Itzel said, more out of shock then out question, "what kind of lump? I'm a doctor, Stef… you need to be more specific with me." She asked, she needed to know exactly what the doctors had told Stef. She needed to know what was going on.

"I... It's…" Stef stuttered, not able to gather any words yet, "They said it was Ductal Car… something…" She tried to remember the exact term but she couldn't recall it right at that moment.

Itzel nodded quickly and fished for more information, "Okay so, a tumor… And further?" She looked at Stef with big eyes.

"It's… Invasive." Stef muttered.

Stef hated feeling like this. Powerless. There was literally nothing that she could do except trust the doctors. She hated putting her trust in other people… it had been broken so many times. Her own body was fighting against her and she couldn't make it stop.

"Invasive to where?" Itzel prayed softly, hoping that the answer wouldn't be 'To my spine' or 'to my brain'. Those would almost eliminate any chances of survival.

"Just nearby tissue, it's still inside my breast and nowhere else…" Stef let out a sigh. The thought of it possibly spreading anywhere else made her want to scream out. What if right at this moment, the cancer was starting to find its way out of her breast tissue?

"What did they say they were going to do?" she needed to know everything, "A mastectomy? Bio therapy?" Itzel asked in a non-patient when Stef wasn't answering right away.

Stef shrugged her shoulders, "They want me to come back in two days to discuss that." She tried not show her fear. She needed to stay strong.

"Oh, baby… I don't want you to wait that long. I'm going to get you the best specialist possible. First thing tomorrow!" The young doctor said, stroking Stef's face. Hoping it would bring her any comfort knowing that she was getting the best care possible. If the cancer really hadn't spread out yet, there wasn't a very big threat.

"You don't have to do…" Stef was cut off mid-sentence by the younger woman in front of her.

"Yes, of course I do… I love you. Now, there are two main components that I would recommend you focus on when looking for the right specialist…" She started explaining. This time it was Stef who cut her off.

"What?" Stef asked. Did Itzel just told her that she… loved her? They had just been dating for about three months and they hadn't even had sex yet. She knew there was a connection and she felt very strong towards Itzel too. Did Stef love Itzel?

Yeah. She did. As strange as it was to admit to herself.

"I was going to advice you on what kind of doctor to get." Itzel though that Stef meant she didn't understand what she was saying so she repeated.

"No, before that." Stef smiled a goofy smile, "You said you love me." She said with a tone in her voice that said 'HAH! GOTCHA!'

"I did?" Itzel was confused for a few seconds but then she remembered. Yes. She did. She did tell Stef that she loved her. By the tone in Stef's voice she understood that Stef didn't feel weird about it.

Stef relaxed her posture, she suddenly didn't feel so... alone anymore. "Ah, yeah. You did."

"I'm sorry. Too soon?" Itzel laughed it off, trying to not make this awkward.

"No. Just in time." Stef leaned in and pecked Itzel on the lips. For the first time in almost two years, Stef felt like she belonged somewhere again.

 **Yaaaas… that was it for this chapter! Let me know what you think about this chapter and what you think about Stef and Itzel together… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW if you have any suggestions and requests and I'll put them in the story. I'll update soon, the next chapter will be nothing but drama drama drama and more DRAMA! Bye bye!**


	12. Choices

**HEYYA guys! Here's another chapter! I'm sorry for the long wait, I was really busy. Thank you guys so Much for all the REVIEWS! They motivate me so much!**

 **RECAP; The last few Chapters I wrote about Stef telling her girlfriend Itzel (Monte's little sister who is MUCH younger than her) about her breast cancer. Lena and Monte took in Sally because she had nowhere else to go, now Sally is awaiting her parents court date. Monte found out about the kiss that Lena and Stef shared while she was in coma and after a good talk with Lena, she forgave Lena and they had steamy make- up sex LOL. Monte's abusive ex-husband Cortez came to San Diego and told her that he had used Monte's frozen egg cells to make a baby who is now three/four years old. Monte has agreed to meet him for dinner, she has kept all of this a secret.**

 **This chapter will focus more on Monte, since the last chapter was all about Stef and Itzel. I saw allot of you guys arguing about if this story should be Monte/Lena or Stef/Lena.. I haven't decided yet. As if now, Stef is with Itzel and Monte is with Lena… But that can and probably will change since this is going to be a long story. I don't know who is going to end up with who yet. Let me know what you want it to be!**

 **Please let me know if you guys like the Cortez storyline or not…**

 **As always… I wanted to point out that English isn't my first language… heck it isn't even my second… so forgive any typo's and if you have any grammatical advice… please REVIEW!**

 **This chapter has a flashback and in that flashback there will be a rape scene… The rape scene will be pointed out with a** _ ***START RAPE SCENE* and *END RAPE SCENE***_

 _ **before and after the scene in bold and cursive.**_

 **I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please leave A REVIEW with what you thought of it. :-)**

Lena got closer to Monte and wrapped her arms around her neck.

"I'm going to miss you at dinner, though" She tangled her hands in Monte's freshly curled hair as she spoke.

"Mmm we can always have... desert together..." Monte purred before leaning in and placing her lips on Lena's.

Lena smiled into the kiss before deepening it. Just before the kiss was starting to get a little more intense a voice sounded from the doorway of their bedroom.

"When you guys are done slurping each other up..." Marianna paused, earning a sarcastic look from the two older women before continuing to speak; "I invited mom to dinner, that's okay right?"

Lena stiffened and a silence fell.

"Of course" escaped Monte's lips quickly as she nodded her head, before things got awkward and Marianna would notice something. Marianna of course didn't know about the drama that had surrendered the kiss between Lena and Stef and they needed to make sure that she never did.

For a minute Monte thought about the whole situation. If she left to see Cortez... It would mean that Stef and Lena would be alone. After Monte found out about what happened between the two while she was in coma m, she hadn't seen Stef yet. She didn't know how to feel about Stef and Lena right now. What if... NO, she quickly shook the thoughts out of her head. She trusted Lena, and she had nothing to worry about.

Right? God, she hated this.

Marianna went downstairs again and Lena looked at Monte with an apologetic look on her face. Just yesterday Monte had found out about the kiss. They had made up, but they hadn't spoken about how they would handle anything like this.

"Lena... It's okay. " Monte quickly spoke before Lena could say something, She smiled at Lena swiftly before continuing wearing her earring, completing her look for the night and hoping that Lena wouldn't push this any further.

"Maybe we should, talk about..." Lena started, only to be cut off by Monte's voice again.

"We don't have to talk about it anymore... I don't care okay? It's fine." Monte spoke with a slightly annoyed tone in her voice. She felt like screaming every time she thought about Lena's lips on Stef's. It stressed her out. Right now the stress of meeting Cortez was all the stress she could handle.

"Monte, I don't want you to have to be worried about..." Again Lena couldn't finish whatever it was she she was going to say.

"Well, sweatheart..." Monte started off sarcastically, "I don't know how to handle this okay? I don't know how to feel about Stef being around you. She's not just an ex, you guys have 5 whole children together! I'm just gonna have to get over it!" Monte half-yelled, she was cautious not to be too loud in case Marianna or Sally were still upstairs.

Lena was quiet for a few moments, filling the room with an uncomfortable silence.

"Please just leave me alone for a few minutes. I have a splitting headache." Monte said, a defeated tone audible in her voice. Whatever she did, she would never equal Stef in Lena's life.

"Okay... I'm going to check on the meatloaf." Lena said, trying to sound casual. She knew better than to push Monte's buttons on this subject so she just walked out of the room. She hated this slight feeling tension between the two of them.

(Monte dialogue about Cortez)

When she was done dressing for dinner, Monte went downstairs too. She went into the kitchen and found Lena there. She stood in the doorway and just looked at the curly haired woman who was busy with whatever she was doing that she hadn't noticed Monte standing there.

"I'm sorry about how I spoke to you just now." Monte said, making Lena jump at the sudden sound of her voice.

Lena turned around, smiled slightly and shook her head at Monte. How could someone be so... Selfless?

"You amaze me sometimes." She uttered as she walked to the counter and sat down on one of the bar stools. She signaled Monte to come sit next to her.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you. We've already spoken this out and there is no need to me to feel like this."

"Like what?" Lena asked hoping Monte would explain her feelings a little more to her.

"Like... Less than Stef. I mean... You guys have children and you were together for SO long." Monte mumbled softly, almost ashamed to say it.

"Because we don't have children together doesn't mean that you are 'less' than Stef, okay?" Lena said, before placing her hand on Monte's cheek. Caressing it softly.

She loved it when Monte opened up to her like this. It only happened a few times before that the Latina talked to Lena about how she felt and told her what her inner emotions towards something were. Usually she hid her feelings away and she just let things pass until she didn't feel them anymore.

Monte nodded, showing Lena that she understood, she did. She loved Lena's kids like they were her own buy, the reality wad that they weren't. She always feared that they were something that Stef gave her that she hadn't. And it made her feel powerless.

"I know, but I just can't help the feeling" she said.

"Maaaybe..." Lena started slowly, "We should have one together." Lena looked at Monte, trying to catch her eyes, trying to read what was in them.

Monte's facial expression changed into a confused one. Her brows furrowed together like she was thinking hard about something. What did Lena just say?

"What?" She asked, thinking she didn't hear what Lena said correctly.

"A child. We should have a child." Lena explained. She had thought about having a baby for so long and when she lost Frankie she kind of gave up the hope. But, now she was with Monte and they were engaged and she had a chance to make a new start.

"Y-you want... You want..." Monte stuttered, "Another kid?" She looked at Lena and tears started to fill her eyes. She had dreamed about having a child with Lena for so long and now that dream was being put in motion.

"Only with you." Lena looked at Monte, seeing the tears of obvious happiness forming in her eyes, "Are those tears a 'yes'?" She asked.

"Of course." Monte let the tears fall down her cheeks and practically flow at Lena, embracing her. The embrace was filled with love, joy and thankfulness. She was so thankful that Lena wanted to share the experience of having a child with her.

A child.

Like the one she gave up for adoption in college.

Like the one she lost when Cortez pushed het down the stairs.

Cortez.

Oh shit. She had to leave soon.

The threatening feeling came back and hit Monte like a train. She was about to meet him for dinner and she didn't know what to expect. What if the story was true and the little boy in the picture was really her son?

How would she explain this to Lena and everyone else? _'Hey guys, my ex-husband Abused me for years and I did't tell you because I'm a fucking coward! Oh and also, when I ran away from him he used my frozen eggs to make a baby...'_ Yeah, that sounded like a ridiculous story, even if she listened to it herself. But what bothered her more was Cortez himself. Why did he do this to her? Why did he want to talk to her? What was his endgame?

"What is it, Monte?" Lena noticed the sudden change in Montes facial expression. She looked... Worried. Was it something she had said maybe? Was Monte having second thoughts about having a child with her?

Lena's voice snapped Monte out of her thoughts. She hadn't even noticed that she had been quiet for this long.

"Sorry, I was just... Nothing. I think I'm late for dinner!" Monte said, hoping Lena wouldn't continue to ask.

"Well, then I think you should get moving!" Lena said before pecking Monte on the lips once more before turning back to the food that she was preparing.

"I love you." Monte said before walking out of the kitchen and into the living room. Just before she closed the doom she could hear Lena's voice telling her that she loved her back.

In the living room Monte found Sally sitting on the couch, hugging a pillow and staring ahead of her. She looked like she was in deep thought.

"Hey, Sal! Why are you sitting here all alone? Shouldn't you be upstairs with Marianna, gossiping about your school principles or something?" Monte said, cheerfully. Trying to make the girl smile.

"No, I just want to be alone for a while." Sally didn't even look at Monte.

Monte sighed a little out of empathy for the 15 year old. She had been through so much the past couple of weeks. The date for her parents hearing had been set for next Thursday. Sally had been staying with them for a fee weeks now but ever since she heard about the court date she had been very inward and she often dozed off.

She knew that if the judge would rule her parents not guilty, she was in big trouble, there would be no more reason to not have her go live with them again. But, she thought that if her parents were guilty she was in BIG TROUBLE also. There would be nobody who would take care of her, pay for her education, she would be on her own. Monte and Lena couldn't take care of her forever, they had their own family to worry about!

"Talk to me, Sal." Monte spoke as she went to sit next to Sally on the couch. She wanted the girl to know that she was there for her and that she could talk to her.

"I'm... Scared." Sally said softly, almost not audible for Monte.

"Honey, you don't have to be afraid of the court date..." Monte started but was cut off.  
"no... I'm scared about what comes after the hearing! What will happen to me?"

"Well, no judge in their right mind would place you back with your parents... Even if they charge them not guilty." Monte explained, she had studied Law and she knew it was in most cases illegal to place Sally back with her parents after all of this.

"But... Where will I go then?" The desperation audible in Sally's voice as she asked the question. She wanted answers, she hated waiting like this.

"I will make sure that you don't go anywhere you don't want to go, sal. I promise you."  
Before Sally could answer, the sound of the doorbell rang trough the house.

"The others are here!" Marianna's voice called as her rapid footsteps hit the stairs while she ran to the front door.

"We're going to continue this later, okay?" Monte told Sally before kissing her cheek and getting off the couch.

Sally nodded, and followed Monte to the front door that Marianna had already opened. She and Callie had just ended an embrace.

"Hi Sally, Hey Monte!" Callie cheerfully spoke as she embraced both of them.  
Then the rest of the four kids entered the house. They all said hi to Sally and gave Monte a hug before walking further into the house.

Monte went out the front door and just as she was about to get in her car she heard a voice from behind her, making her turn around.

"Hey there Monte! You're leaving just before dinner?" Stef said as she walked closer to where Monte was.

For a fee seconds Monte was silent. She was contemplating on what to say or do. This was the first time after finding out about the kiss that she had seen Stef. Also, Stef probably didn't know that she knew.

"Uh, hey Stef. I was just... I'm gonna gave dinner at my sister's house tonight... She has a... Job interview tomorrow and I just want to give her mental support." Monte lied.

Stef, being the police woman she is could immediately see that Monte was making the whole thing up. She looked awfully fancy, she had even curled her hair, that must have taken hours with the amount and length of her hair. She wore a full face of makeup and she smelled like expensive perfume. Nobody would go through all that trouble just to hang out at their sisters house. Should she ask where Monte was really going? No... It wasn't her business anyway. 

Monte saw the look on Stef's face and she knew that Stef had noticed her lying trough her teeth. Before Stef could say or ask anything else, she opened her car door.

"I should go... Itzel must be waiting for me already." She said.

"Yeah... Have a nice dinner, Monte. Say hi to Itzel for me." Stef said sarcastically, knowing that Monte felt the heat.

Mote finally arrived at the restaurant, her hands were sweaty and shaking as she pushed open the door and walked inside. She was greeted by a mixture of delightful smells but she couldn't enjoy it. All she felt right now was tenseness and something else. Something she always felt when she knew Cortez was near. Fear, she was scared.

She looked around and saw him sitting at a table in the corner of the restaurant, near a window. His hair was parted on the side and he was wearing a grey suit. He always looked proper when he was in public. Always ready for business. If everyone only knew what monster really hid beneath that prince charming act of his.

Monte swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat and very slowly walked over to where he was. When she came close enough she saw that there was someone else sitting at the table with Cortez, he was talking to whoever it was. She couldn't see who it was because the chair was turned away from her.

Then cortez noticed Monte, he waved at her and signaled for her to join him at the table. Monte walked closer and could then finally see who was sitting on the opposite of Cortez at the table. It was the little boy from the pictures.

Her heart stopped beating for a few seconds and her breathing started to fasten. She knew she was having a bad panic attack but at this point there was no turning back anymore.

"Oh, hello Monte!" Cortez said with enthusiasm in his voice, he couldn't wait to see the pain in Monte's eyes and he couldn't wait to see how this all would play out. He noticed that Monte didn't even look at him at all. Her eyes were fixated on the little boy in front of them.

The boy was wearing a dark blue shirt and khaki pants. Monte could instantly see that Cortez was the one who chose his clothes. His hair was jet black and was in perfect contrast with his olive skin tone. He was adorable.

"May I introduce you to Benito?" Cortez added as he signaled the boy to introduce himself with a nudge of his head.

"Hello ma'am. I'm Ben, nice to meet you." The boy said politely as he smiled up at Monte, his smile wide and pearly white, just like Cortez's. His little voice reached Monte's eardrums and she was instantly in awe of him. For a few seconds she didn't think about Cortez being there. She had never believed in 'love at first sight' but, she all it took was one last ok at the boy and 

After a few moments she noticed that she hadn't even said a word yet. She had just been staring at Benito. Truthfully, she had no idea how to act right now. She was standing in front if a table with her abusive ex-husband and a child that looked just like her and was probably her's but she didn't even know. She was sure that no other woman in the world had ever experienced this kind of craziness.

"Uh, hi. My name is Monte... It's really nice to meet you too." Monte finally found words to say as she shook Benito's little hand. She looked at Cortez who told her to sit down next to him, across from Benito, he even assisted her with her coat and hung it over her chair before pulling her chair out. Like a 'real gentleman'.

There was a long silence filled with Monte looking at Benito, studying him. Oh how Cortez was enjoying this.

"Good evening, my name is Cherry. I will be your waiter for tonight. Are you ready to order?" The blonde haired girl standing in front of their table said, holding out her notepad.

"What do you want to eat, BenBug?" Cortez said with a genuinely caring and sweet voice.  
Monte looked at Cortez. She had never heard him speak like that. With such true affection, not even to her in the beginning of their marriage.

"Uuhm, do they have fries Daddy?" Benito asked as he pretended to read his menu, he couldn't read yet so he didn't even notice he was holding it upside down.

"Can I have the reasted chicken filet with fries for the big boy over there and for me... A portion of your seafood stew." Cortez told the waitress Benito's and His own order and then looked at Monte, waiting for her to order whatever she wanted. She decided to order pasta and the waitress left their table again.

Before the awkward silence came, Cortez decided to start up a conversation.  
"So, Monte... Did you know that Ben starts school next year?" Cortez started. Hoping it would spark a conversation between his ex-wife and their son. He knew that there must be a million questions running around in her head that she couldn't ask in front of Benito.

Before monte could answer, Benito started talking, "Yeah, daddy said I'm gonna be the smartest kid in the class! I can already write my name!"

"Wow, you're such a big boy! What do you want to be when you grow up?" Monte asked. She was starting to ease up and she was genuinely interested in getting to know more about the boy sitting in front of her.

"I wanna be a firefighter and a superhero and a police officer!" Benito cheered enthusiastic, smiling at Monte.

"What work do you do?" Benito asked curiously.

"I'm the head of a school. It's a fun job but not as fun as a superhero-policemen-firefighter." Monte told the four year old, making him laugh.

Suddenly Cortez got up from his chair, the sudden movement coming from Cortez made Monte gasp and flinch. All those years of abuse were imbedded in her mind and being near Cortez made her nervous and on edge.

Cortez chuckled before saying; "Relax Monte. I'm just going to the toilet. Can you watch Ben for a minute? " he loved the way she feared him. He gave her shoulder a tight squeeze, warning her not to say or ask Benito anything stupid.

Benito asked Monte a bunch of other questions about her job and her hobbies. He was very interested in his dad's 'friend'. She was pretty and she had allot of cool stories about her job. He liked her.

Cortez came back from the restroom and sat down next to Monte again. The waitress came back with their food and while they ate, Monte and Benito kept talking, getting to know more each other.

Benito told Monte about his dog, his toy cars, his friends and all of his favorite things to do.  
After they were done eating, Cortez asked Benito to go play in the kids' corner so that he could talk to Monte alone for a minute. Benito of course accepted and ran off to the ball pit to play with some other kids there.

When Benito left the table Cortez turned to Monte with a smug look on his face, "He likes you." He said, "Of course he does, you're his mom."

Monte finally let out a heavy grunt of frustration she had been holding in all night. "Cortez... Please let me do a DNA test."

Cortez laughed a little, "what do you mean? You're saying he doesn't look like you?" The sarcasm thick in his voice.

Monte let out a sigh. The boy was her spitting image, it was obvious that she was his mother. But she needed to know for sure, "Why did you do this?" She paused, trying to slow down her breathing.

Cortez shrugged, "It's perfect right? Giving you the one thing you wanted most in the world and not even telling you he exists. I told you I'd get my revenge... Baby." He put his hand on her lap and stroked her leg making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in disgust.

"I... I have the chance to get to know him... Right? " Monte asked, as her eyes started to water.  
She noticed her grip Cortez had on her leg starting to get tighter and tighter. She acted like she didn't feel it, not wanting him to notice how scared she was. She needed answers and she wasn't going to let her fear get in the way.

"Well, I wouldn't want to have Benito grow up without his mom..." Cortez started his grip on her thigh softening."But then again... What good are parents if they aren't together?" He added.  
Monte felt Cortez starting to move his hand on her thigh, stroking it again. What did he mean by that?

Cortez noticed the confused look on Monte's face so he explained. "You want to be in Ben's life, you have to be in mine too. And this time..." He stopped talking as his hand traveled to her hip to squeeze it tenderly, "you're not going to leave me, Kitten."

His cold voice Reached her ears and as the words sank in the tears started to fall from her eyes. Now she knew exactly what it was that he wanted from her.

"Or.. If you don't want to accept my... Proposal... I can always move far, far away from you with our son and you'll never see him again." He smiled.

"Cortez, please... Don't do this to me." Monte pleaded the tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. She remembered when she had said those same words so many times before…

"Wipe those fucking tears off your face Monte, were in public." He said, handing her a napkin off the table. He hadn't changed a bit. He had always talked to her like this. He used her as a punching bag at home, but in public she had to pretend she was the happiest wife in the world.

" _How the fuck do you screw something as simple as this up?" Cortez asked, his voice was getting louder with every sentence he spoke. Monte had lost a deal with one of their big clients in their business meeting today. The 500.000 dollar deal that they had been waiting for, for MONTHS! Of course they had other offers but, this was the best one and because of Monte they would have to settle with one of the lower biddings._

 _Monte already knew what was coming. She mindlessly put her hands over her now showing belly. When she found out that she was pregnant, she thought that maybe, just maybe, there would come an end to all of this. But, it just seemed like things had became worse. All o the name calling, all of the beatings, all of the unhappiness. Right now, this little baby that she was carrying was the ONLY source of happiness that she had in her life._

" _I couldn't stop them from not taking the deal, Baby! They wanted way more product than we have to offer." She said in a pleading voice, tears starting to form in her eyes._

" _Well, you could have asked them for another deal, or more time to create more product!"_

" _I did! I did everything I could, Cortez!" Monte let out a sob and finally let the tears flow down her face. She didn't know how else to explain this to Cortez._

" _Why are you crying huh?!" He said with fire in his voice, "I'll give you something to cry about, stupid bitch!" He walked closer to her and pushed her to the ground, earning a loud shriek from Monte._

" _Baby, please…" was all she managed to utter before he bend down and took a fist full of her hair, hoisting her up by it._

" _OUCH!" Monte yelped when she felt Cortez's fist connect with the side of her face. Immediately she held her hands in front of her face, protecting it from another blow._

" _What good are you to me? You're Stupid, you always look like shit, It's like you're intentionally trying to piss me off!" He yelled at her._

 _Monte just stood there, backed up in a corner inside their bedroom, once again. She felt worthless, Cortez was right! She was nothing! She wrapped her arms around her middle, hugging her belly, where their child was growing. Never in a million years would she have guessed that Cortez would ever treat her like this when she first met him. He used to be so sweet and caring. He used to bring her flowers after work, he used to make love to her for hours, telling her how beautiful she was and how much he loved her._

 _Monte was hauled out of her thoughts by her own voice screaming when she felt a burning, stinging pain on her thigh. While she had been trying to get her mind back to better times, Cortez had taken off his belt and had whipped her hard on her thigh._

" _Please Cortez… please stop. I'm begging you!" Monte pleaded as he kept targeting the softest parts of her body to hit with the belt. Monte looked down and saw the long red welts starting to appear on her skin._

 _Cortez finally dropped the belt and stood looking at his wife. She always looked so pathetic like this. He loved it. He loved it when she was curled up in a corner like this, looking helpless with tears streaming down her face and her voice calling out to him, begging him to stop. She looked just like he always wanted her to look, he couldn't take his eyes off her._

" _Anything you want to say to me, Kitten?" Cortez said calmly._

" _I'm so sorry that I lost the deal, baby." Monte muttered softly, still trying to wrap her head around the beating she just got. She was so sick of these roller coasters of emotions. She was sick of walking on egg shells just hoping he was in a good mood all the time. Hoping nothing stresses him out. She was sick of feeling like she was nothing. I didn't even feel like she could think for herself anymore. She was thinking for him and what she thought he would want._

 _Cortez smiled softly at her, "Okay, Kitten. Come here. Give me a hug." He held his arms out for her to walk into._

 _He always did this, he always acted like nothing happened when he had just been beating the shit out of her moments before. He was just standing there, waiting for his 'hug'. Monte walked over to him and wrapped his arms around him as he embraced her. His embrace used to feel warm and loving but now all she felt was trapped._

" _kiss me, Monte." He said into her hair before putting a hand on her chin, lifting her face up to look at him._

 _ ***START RAPE SCENE***_

 _Before Monte could answer, Cortez's lips were pressed on hers roughly. He didn't waste any time to rip off the dress she was wearing and threw her on the bed behind them. He undid his shirt and pants before climbing on top of her. She could feel his member pressing against her thigh as he continued kissing her and touching her. Pulling her hair, Kneading her breasts, going over the welts that he had just made on her skin with his belt. Enjoying the feeling of her squirm beneath him when he touched the streaks the belt had made._

" _Cortez, please stop. I'm not in the mood, baby." She said, trying to sound as submissive as possible, careful not to trigger another anger attack._

" _Oh, you know you love it like this, Monte." He said aligning his member with her center._

" _Cortez, I don't want…" She was caught off by Cortez pushing into her with great force. She let out a scream and tried to squirm away from him, without much success._

 _Cortez wrapped his hand around Monte's throat and squeezed while he kept pummeling into her, not caring how much it hurt or if she couldn't breathe. He loved it when she looked like this. Like a pathetic slut._

" _Hmm, you're a disgusting little whore, Monte. Look at how wet you are. You love this!" He said, choking her harder and pushing into her harder with more force._

 _Monte was struggling for air to breath and just when she thought that she was going to pass out, Cortez let out a low, loud growl and went limp on top of her._

 _ ***END RAPE SCENE***_

 _He rolled to his side of the bed and said nothing for a few minutes. Monte asked herself how much longer she would be able to take this? What would things be like when the baby was born? What would the child grow up seeing? His or her father beating the living crap out of its mother? GOD, she already felt like apologizing to the baby._

" _Go make me some food." Cortez said when he was finally down from his orgasmic high._

 _Monte quickly got out of the bed, put her robe on and walked out of the room, into the hallway. She was about to go down the stairs when she heard Cortez yell something at her._

" _Make sure you put mayonnaise on it this time." He yelled after her._

 _Shit. She was gonna go to the store this morning but she forgot because she had to get ready for the meeting._

" _Uh… I didn't buy mayonnaise this morning…" she hollered back. That's when she heard his footsteps storming out of their bedroom, towards her at the stairs._

" _Why can't you ever do anything right?!" He yelled at her. All he wanted was a sandwich and even that she couldn't give him._

" _I'm sorry… I was going to go to the store this morning but I had to…" Before she could end her sentence, she was met with a flat hand against her face making her yelp once again._

" _You're lucky that you're a good fuck… Else I'd dumped your ugly ass a long time ago." He said as he slapped her face again._

" _Stop it, Right now!" she yelled at him, losing her temper, everything was just a little to much at that moment. Right when the words had left her mouth she regretted them. How could she yell at him? Was she insane?_

 _She felt Cortez's big hands grab her by the shoulders before throwing her down the stairs with all his force. She fell down the long set of steep hardwood main stairs of the house, seeing everything spinning and hearing the sharp impact of arms, legs and head striking the wood as she tumbled down. She came to rest on her back at the bottom of the stairs facing away from the steps, too afraid to move in case she was injured. She felt this sick rush of nausea from adrenaline as she hears Cortez's footsteps rushing down to her._

" _Oh, shit… you're bleeding." She heard his voice say._

 _That's when she felt it. She felt a warm liquid soaking her robe. She could feel her upper legs and her back being covered by it. She shot up into a sitting position and looked down. She immediately started screaming in horror. She was sitting in a big pool of BLOOD that was streaming from her center. She knew right away what was going on. The hard blows from the long wooden stairs had caused her to miscarriage._

 _She lost her baby._

 _She lost the only bit of happiness that she still had left in her life. The only thing she cared for. The thing she wanted most. Her child._

 _She lost her baby that day. But, she gained the courage to say enough is enough. The next week, she gathered all her clothes and ran away to a hotel when Cortez was still asleep._

Monte didn't know what to do or what to say now. If she told anyone about this, she would never see her son again, she knew Cortez well enough to know that. If she did what Cortez wanted, she would be able to be with Benito. She had already given up her first child and she had lost her second before it was even born, she wasn't going to lose her third. She HAD to do this.

But then Lena flashed through her mind. Lena, her fiancée. The love of her life. And Marianna who was like a daughter to her. And the other kids who she loved also. Lena had just asked her to have a child. She had a whole life build up here in San Diego and God only knew where Cortez would drag her to and what he would do to her. She didn't know what to do right now.

"We're going to be in town for another 7 days before we leave, with or without you. You have time to make a decision. It's now or never again..." Cortez told her.

Just as Monte was going to say something, Cherry, their waitress came to the table. "I'm sorry but, your son fell and I think he has a little scratch on his arm. He's crying." She said.

Cortez got up immediately and walked over to the play corner followed by Monte. When they came close they saw Benito sit on the edge of the ball pit, tears streaming down his face but no sound coming out of him. He was just sniffling. His bottom lip was poking out and his eyes were big. Monte's heart melted immediately, he looked absolutely adorable.

She got on her knees in front of him and asked "hey, hey, hey... What happened? Did you fall?"

Benito sniffled and nodded his head yes, he lifted his arm and showed Monte the small scratch on his arm.

"I have a booboo." He said.

Monte took a band aid out of the small first aid kit she carried in her bag and covered Benito's scratch with it before placing a kiss on top of it.

"There we go! Better now?" She said with a soothing voice.

Ben nodded and for the first time her swung his arms around Monte's neck and hugged her. Monte stiffened before returning the embrace. That's when she felt it. Love. Receiving love from her child. Something she hadn't felt before.

When the embrace ended Cortez knelt down next to Monte "BenBug, I think it's time we leave... It's getting a little late buddy."

Ben got up and let Cortez pick him up and put him in his hip. "Can you say bye, bye to Monte?" Cortez told the four year old.

"Bye Monte!" Benito smiled before returning his focus to his new band aid.

"Bye Monte, think about what I said okay? Let me know." Cortez said as before winking at her. He turned around and walked away.

Just before Monte was going to walk to the table to get her coat, she felt a hand on her shoulder, making her turn around. It was Cortez again. "And... Don't do anything stupid, Kitten." He said quietly, making sure Benito didn't hear. This time he walked out of the restaurant.

Monte knew what he meant by 'not doing anything stupid' he meant that she shouldn't tell anyone or she's regret it. And she knew better than to disobey him. Once again she was pressured by Cortez to keep secrets from everyone. Just when she thought she was freed from him he popped up like a nasty little zit. But this time there was something more. Something that she really cared about. Her child. And even though she didn't know Ben, he was part of her.

She was dragged out of her thought by Cherry's voice, "Ma'am, I just wanted to thank you for the tip! That's really very generous of you and your husband!" She said, "You have a beautiful family!" She added before walking away.

Monte quickly grabbed her coat off the chair and left the restaurant. The whole car ride home Monte continued to think about what Cortez said. She had two options; she could go with Cortez and get the chance to know and help raise her son OR she could choose not to do that and never see him again.

When she reached her house she took a few minutes to breathe and get herself together before getting out of her car and walking inside the house. The house was filled with voices coming from the living room. Obviously Stef and the kids hadn't left yet.

"Hey Monte! Your back!" Jude's chipper voice hollered when he saw his mother's fiancée enter the room.

A series of "hey Monte's' and "hi, Monte's followed after. They were watching yet another Movie together. Sally looked comfortable between the other teenagers and Monte was happy that they could provide some sort of distraction for her.

Monte looked around the living room and noticed that both Lena and Stef weren't there with their kids and Sally. If they weren't here... Where were they? The two of them.

Alone.

"Guys, where are your moms?" She asked, trying not to sound nervous about what answer she would get.

Jesus turned around and answered, "they're in the kitchen I think." Before turning back to the television.

Monte quickly made her way to the kitchen and paused before opening the door. What could they be doing in the kitchen with the door closed. She took a deep breath and opened the door slowly. She was met with only Stef, sitting at the breakfast table.

"Hey Stef... is Lena here?" She asked.

"Oh, No... Lena just went out. She uh... She went to the store real quick." Stef said, as she took another sip from her beer.

"Okay... Uh, how was dinner?" Monte asked, trying to stay casual. Before she found out about the kiss, she and Stef had been getting along quite okay, friendly even. Why would she change her attitude now? She and Lena had talked it out, there was no reason to change her attitude towards the blonde especially since she had no Idea that Monte knew.

"How was yours?" Stef shot back at Monte with a fiery tone in her voice. She had Texted Itzel to ask if Monte was at her house, just to be sure that she wasn't just throwing accusations at Monte.

Monte noticed the sarcasm and the slight hostility in Stef's voice. Shit. Did she know something?

"I- It was great..." Monte stuttered a little, hoping that Stef would just drop it and they would move on to the next subject.

"Yeah?" Stef asked, flashing Monte a look that said; 'really? Come on... Spill it'.

Monte didn't answer, she walked over to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of wine and a glass.

"Monte... I know you weren't at Itzel's house." Stef said plainly, stating the obvious, "I don't know how Lena thought you dressed like this to go see your sister..." Then she was stopped by Monte's voice.

"Stef... Please, can you just... Drop it?" Monte pleaded with a stressed out voice. She already had so much to think about. She didn't have the energy to make up a good enough lie to persuade Stef into believing she was speaking the truth right now.

"Listen, I know you and Lena are engaged and all but, I care about her and I will be damned if I watch you cheat on her and not do anything about it!" Stef said harshly. There was obviously no other explanation than that Monte was cheating on Lena. Why else would she dress that fancy and lie about where she was going? No way in HELL that she would let that happen, not when all the kids were used to how things were right now.

"I have nothing to hide, Stef! I promise I'm not cheating on Lena! I swear." Monte said, tears coming to her eyes, threatening to fall. She didn't know what to do right now. Of course she did, she had to be quiet and lie about the whole situation with Cortez, like always.

Stef shook her head and unlocked her phone, "well, then I suppose you wouldn't mind if I called Lena and asked her if..."

"NO!" Monte practically yelled at her, "No, please. I'll tell you where I was." She added, her eyes screaming defeat.

"Okay, but don't lie to me. I smell one lie on you and I'm calling Lena." Stef warned as she sat down on one of the barstools, followed by Monte doing the same.

Monte couldn't believe that she was about to tell her biggest secret to someone that used to hate her more than anyone else. But, what else could she do? If Stef called Lena, there would be even more Fuzz.  
"I... I never told this to anyone. Please keep this to yourself Stef. I'm begging you." Monte said, not even able to look Stef in the eyes.

Stef noticed that whatever Monte was about to tell her had been going on for quite some time and it was bothering her very badly.

"Okay... I'll keep it to myself. What is it? You can tell me." Stef said, she felt genuine concern for Monte right now. There was something wrong.

Monte started spilling her guts to Stef. EVERYTHING that she had been holding in for years came out.

The marriage, the was Cortez used to beat her, the pregnancy followed the miscarriage, the divorce and the way Cortez took everything from her. Benito. Her son that Cortez had a college student carry without ever telling her.

And lastly the choice he had given her at dinner. Run away with him text week or never see Benito again.

Stef's mouth fell open in surprise. Cortez sounded like a horrible person. She felt nothing but empathy and the need to help Monte right now. Monte had always presented herself as this strong, fierce woman with no fears. It was painful to see someone like her break down her walls and

She knew that they hadn't always seen eye to eye but, there was no way she was going to let a man take over a woman's life like this. The worst part was the little boy. Having innocent children involved in situations like this was always horrible. She needed to see Monte's ex husband get a piece of justice.

"What are you going to do? You're not going with him right? He's dangerous." Stef asked.

Monte shook her head, not knowing what to answer to Stef's question.

"He has my son... I can't loose my son before even knowing him. I feel like I'm losing my mind." Monte stared into space, she was talking more to herself than to Stef at the moment.

"Hey hey hey, there is no way he's getting away with this, Monte." Stef assured her.

"There is nothing I can do! I'm scared of him!" Came out of Monte with a howl. She was terrified.

"You may be scared of him, but I sure as fuck am not." Stef said determined. 

**SOOOO…. That was it for this chapter! Stef knows about Monte's secret. So, Stef being typical Stef she wants to help and be the hero… Next chapter will touch a little more on Stef's breast cancer and her relationship with Itzel. Stef will of course make a plan of action regarding Monte's situation and calls Monte over to the squad room to prepare for action. Also, the twins birth mom comes in the picture!**

 **Please REVIEW if you have ANY requests for chapters and I will put it in here if it fits! Thank you for reading!**


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